Changes in one’s life can lead to stress and anxiety. Reflect back to a time in your life when you were going through a major change, perhaps it was a new job, moving to a new home, getting married, did you feel stressed, worried, or exhausted at any point? If you answered “no”, then congratulations, because you my friend are one cool cucumber! It’s commonly accepted in our culture that bringing a baby into this world can be the most joyous, yet sometimes most difficult times in a mother’s life. This post will address a few of the culprits that can lead to Post-Partum Depression (PPD) and what current research suggests.
Recent
research suggest that there are common factors that may influence a mother’s likelihood
to experience PPD. While there are a variety of issues that can affect a
mother’s post-partum mental health, the specific qualities that Vligen and
Luyten focused on were dependency, self-criticism, anxiety and level of
education. In layman terms they found that women who were more critical of
themselves had a higher rate to develop PPD, “post-partum depressed mothers
were found to have significantly higher levels of self-criticism compared with
non-depressed mothers” (Vliegen & Luyten 2009). They point out that their
research correlates with other studies that have found “PPD is particularly
associated with having high standards and excessive self-criticism” (Vliegen
& Luyten 2009). This I found very interesting, because in an era when we
tell young women you can have it all, be a wife, be a mother, and have a
successful career, the same qualities that will help you achieve all those
things could play a part in causing you to experience PPD during a time that is
marked as a happy.
Further
research by our authors also led them to believe that mothers who have a lower
level of completed education are more likely to experience depressed symptoms
after baby arrives, it was hypothesized that less education could result in
more anxiety in new mothers. From a Community Psychology stand point it made me
wonder if having more psychoeducation for new moms who have not completed as
much schooling could lessen the anxiety that comes with bringing a baby into
the world. Vligen and Luyten believe that a mother who has more of a dependent
personality might work in her favor to avoid PPD. They did not offer up a
lengthy explanation on this, but it made me wonder if perhaps someone who is
more dependent on others may be more willing to ask for help if they are becoming
overwhelmed, thus cutting off PPD before it can fully begin.
After
completing this research I was led to draw several conclusions. First while
conducting research the studies that I was coming across were mostly conducted
in foreign countries, very seldom things seem to be done in the United States.
I couldn’t help but draw a parallel to the fact that the United States is one
of a very few countries who offer no paid maternity leave, whereas some
countries offer up a year of paid maternity leave. The fact that minimal
research was conducted here and our lack of benefits for working mothers, made
me question if we need to have more dialogue here about issues women face as
they transition into motherhood. Secondly I believe the dialogue surrounding
the expectations that we as women set for ourselves, could be tweaked. Take to
any social media forum and you will find story after story of mothers, who may
work, or stay home, or fall somewhere in between talking about how they feel
they cannot measure up to some standard that we have set in our mind as to what
it means to be a woman and a mother. Finally that further research needs to be
conducted on this subject, there are so many factors that contribute to PPD,
and to best serve this population we need to have a better understanding of the
issues that women are facing.
Works Cited
Vliegen, N., & Luyten, P. (2009). Dependency and
self-criticism in post-partum depression and anxiety: A case control study. Clinical
Psychology & Psychotherapy, 16(1), 22-32. doi:10.1002/cpp.597
Diana: Excellent topic and, as you mention, a topic that is lacking in attention and research in our country. You did a great job including important information from the peer-reviewed, scholarly journal article. You also provided some of your thoughts, which were interesting and well-informed. This blog post showed a good amount of balance between opinion/anecdotal evidence and research. -Jessica B-L
ReplyDeleteOne other comment - can you please write a little summary and/or intro of your video so your post gives some context as to why you are including it? Thanks! Jessica B-L
ReplyDeleteDiana,
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting read and something that is not discussed when thinking about mental health. After reading your findings on your research, I realized how strong of a correlation there is between mothers who are more likely to be diagnosed with PPD and how likely they are to criticize themselves. I find this interesting in that the image of "super mom" in our society is seen as something that all moms should strive to live up to; that it is a positive thing and that you are a strong woman and provider for your family if you can essentially "do it all." The biggest piece missing in that message however are the points that you mentioned in this research, that these "super moms" may actually be the people who overly criticize themselves, and in turn are more likely to be diagnosed with PPD. I also like you approach on the idea of presenting a psychoeducational piece in order to alleviate anxiety of moms, and hopefully create less of a possibility that PPD will develop. Lastly, you most certainly make a valid point about how the United States approaches motherhood in regards to other countries. Further discussion and policies developed to provide more support to US mothers could be key to reducing not only the rate of PPD, but possibly the stigma surrounding it.
-Megan Gonzalez