Babies are
born every single day, when all goes as planned they come into this world
happy, healthy, and screaming. But the March of Dimes estimates that for
380,000 births in the United States per year, things don’t necessarily go as
planned. As young adults we are taught in our health and biology classes that
the human gestational period lasts approximately nine months, or 40 weeks to be
more precise. According to the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologist (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) “Babies
born full term have the best chance of being healthy” (March of Dimes, 2016).
Full term is now considered to be between 39 weeks, and one day shy of 41
weeks.
In general having a baby when
everything goes according to plan can be hectic and stressful, but what happens
when that plan deviates to something that a mother may have never considered? Babies
born premature are at risk for multiple complications, there little bodies have
not developed to the level of a full term baby, and the basic needs for
survival can prove difficult. The medical community does not always have a
clear cut answer for why babies are born prematurely, but sometimes aside from
the simple fact of being born early, the baby may have other health complications,
adding on even more medical factors that come into play, and can greatly alter
an infant’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay.
No doubt these babies are fighters, but how do these scenarios affect mothers? According Friedman et al. (2013) in their article appearing in Acta Paediatrica in a NICU setting “150 mothers were referred for psychiatric evaluations and psychotherapeutic interventions” of those they were “referred because of depression (43%), anxiety (44%), and/or difficulty coping with their infant’s medical problems (60%)”. It is not uncommon in a NICU setting to not be able to hold your baby, and a post-partum time that is typically filled with caring for your newborn, family and friends visiting, and perhaps even becoming accustomed to breastfeeding; is instead spent attending care times, meeting with medical specialists, and trying to grasp all the information being thrown at parents. Mother’s to preterm babies are faced with the reality that they must return home, while their little one stays at the hospital. Additional stressors can be if the mother has additional children in the home, according to Friedman et al. (2013) “mothers who saw the psychiatrist had few living children”. This shows that family size alone can determine a woman’s ability to seek post-partum psychological care. That’s just one factor, some women have limited resources to address their own psychological needs, these barriers to treatment can come in the form of limited insurance, low income, and sometimes even just not enough hours in the day.
No doubt these babies are fighters, but how do these scenarios affect mothers? According Friedman et al. (2013) in their article appearing in Acta Paediatrica in a NICU setting “150 mothers were referred for psychiatric evaluations and psychotherapeutic interventions” of those they were “referred because of depression (43%), anxiety (44%), and/or difficulty coping with their infant’s medical problems (60%)”. It is not uncommon in a NICU setting to not be able to hold your baby, and a post-partum time that is typically filled with caring for your newborn, family and friends visiting, and perhaps even becoming accustomed to breastfeeding; is instead spent attending care times, meeting with medical specialists, and trying to grasp all the information being thrown at parents. Mother’s to preterm babies are faced with the reality that they must return home, while their little one stays at the hospital. Additional stressors can be if the mother has additional children in the home, according to Friedman et al. (2013) “mothers who saw the psychiatrist had few living children”. This shows that family size alone can determine a woman’s ability to seek post-partum psychological care. That’s just one factor, some women have limited resources to address their own psychological needs, these barriers to treatment can come in the form of limited insurance, low income, and sometimes even just not enough hours in the day.
In
Friedman et al. (2013) study the most common diagnoses amongst the mothers in
their group were “depression (40%), anxiety disorders (31%), and post-traumatic
stress disorder (5%)”. Women in this type of situation can only benefit from
having access to post-partum mental health care. Our authors further explain “The
rate of Post-Partum Depression in the NICU has an elevated range from 28 to 70%”
(Friedman et al., 2013). This information further indicates the need for
counseling services to be made available to NICU families.
In conclusion one can clearly see the need for mental health services to be made available to NICU families. For future research I would like to spend time finding what sources are made available to NICU families and how easily they can be accessed by families who have a little one in the NICU here in Milwaukee and Waukesha County. According to the March of Dimes in 2013 in Milwaukee County 1,786 babies were born preterm that accounts for 12% of live births in the county. That is 1,786 families who were affect by a little one coming earlier than planned. Once again in my research many of the articles and studies I came across concerning this topic were conducted in other countries. The study referenced in this post was conducted in New Zealand. This further emphasizing that in the United States we need to have a more of a focus on post-partum mental health and the issues facing women and families during this very critical time in their life.
If you would like to learn more the purpose that March of Dimes serves, I would encourage you to watch the following video.
Reference List
Friedman S,
Kessler A, Yang S, Parsons S, Friedman H, Martin R. Delivering perinatal
psychiatric services in the neonatal intensive care unit. Acta Paediatrica
[serial online]. September 2013;102(9):e392-e397. Available from: PsycINFO,
Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 16, 2016.
March of
Dimes. (2016). March of Dimes PeriStats. Retrived
from March of Dimes website http://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/Peristats.aspx.
Diana,
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting sub-topic into post-partum depression that I honestly have never considered. Given the stressors that mothers experience who have babies that are born prematurely it would be appropriate to have services in place that are designed to assist mothers throughout this difficult time. According to the research you conducted this does not always seem to be the case as there are multiple barriers for women to access psychological services post partum, one in particular being if there are other children in the home. I can imagine how services such as respite care for other children in the home would be extremely beneficial to mothers in this position. Another common theme I see in the research you are finding is that there is a lack of discussion about post-partum depression within the United States and that it seems to gain more attention in other countries. This is not surprising to me as our country seems to place little importance on providing a family time to be able to adjust to having a new baby in the home, as we are quickly pushed back into working after the baby is born.