Perinatal Depression in Women

Perinatal Depression in Women

Physical health is much more likely to be detected than mental health. The question therefore arises, why is it hard for people to detect mental health issues? Mental health issues have had a long history, and it is hard to detect because they come in different forms. At the same time, people do not come out in the open to talk about the issues they face. However, it takes keen eyes and an alert mindset to take note of depression. In recent times, there have been many platforms that are centered around mental health issues. These platforms have given people the confidence to come out and expose depression for what it is. It is safe to say that depression is no longer an unfamiliar sight. What starts as simple sadness turns into episodes of lack of energy to indulge in social activities and into angry outbursts over small inconveniences. Actas Espanolas de Psiquiatria proves through a survey that people in Spain understand depression. In the survey, more than fifty percent responded that depression is a disease. At the same time, people understand how to treat depression which is a good sign of things to come in the future. The essay focuses on perinatal women in families and explains why they are likely to suffer from depression. Pathogenic factors mainly cause these episodes of depression.

As discussed by Tully (2018), more and more women continue to battle perinatal depression. From Tully (2018), it is possible to detect what help these women need when going through such trouble. From the teachings, we learn that the love between couples is important in marriage, especially after birth. When one of the partners is busy and doesn’t give enough time to the partner, there are many burdens left to bear. The victim, in turn, has to look for ways to channel the hate and the built-up emotion, which can be catastrophic to both the child and the mother. In the end, the perinatal period is very important, and women require utmost care and adaptation. If these two do not exist, women will likely suffer from perinatal depression. In Tully (2018), the main protagonist, Marlowe suffered is a great example of a woman that suffers from postpartum depression. She has two children and, in both instances, suffered from depression. Added to this misery, Marlowe had a third child who was from an unexpected pregnancy. Marlowe has no one to talk to because her husband is always busy with work and has no time for her. Marlowe has too much stress in her third pregnancy. She did not work on the depressive episodes that she had during the first two pregnancies, and now the unplanned third baby is on the way. This situation that Marlowe finds herself in is one in which many women do end up. For instance, many women do not plan for the next children. Lack of planning leads to women thinking through how they will manage their children, especially from a financial standpoint. In the film, Marlowe’s husband is busy trying to figure out how they will finance their family. This takes a toll on the couple to the extent that they do not have time for one another.

Perinatal women are in a disadvantaged position in the family or society. They have to stay home full-time because they have children, no personal financial income, no societal activities, and less communication with the outside world. These are remedies that can cause depression in the early stages of perinatal women. For instance, when women only depend on their husbands for money, there are chances during the turbulent marriage that their turbulent marriage that they will be unable to provide. These tense times can cause women to have depression since they cannot work because this can harm the unborn baby. After birth, the woman’s body has not fully recovered, and trying to work can cause pain to the body. Women who lack personal finances have a hard time adjusting to staying at home. In recent times, the world has been centered around helping women fight for their rights. In doing so, many forums have been formed where women can come out and express themselves. However, perinatal women cannot go out and express themselves and meet new groups because they have to stay at home. Lack of preparedness for this harsh reality makes women feel depressed and sad because not many women will receive people from the outside coming into their homes and keeping them company. Also, many women feel insecure about talking about their condition, especially on social media, for fear of being judged. Therefore, when women are at home, they rather suffer in silence than go out and talk about the conditions they are facing. Women with previous depressive conditions will automatically be affected more.

All things considered, the relationship between a husband and his wife who is going through perinatal can be directly linked to depression. There are several pieces of evidence as to why this is the case. The first evidence is the spread of energies. As discussed by (), when you live with a negative person, it is not uncommon for one person to tap into one of the energies. At the same time, when you live with a positive person, you will tap into those energies and become positive.

What’s more, a husband and a wife live together and see each other every day. This relationship can be likened to that of officers in a submarine. The couple sees each other every day. It, therefore, means that energies tend to be shared between the couples. As discussed by (), most women heavily depend on their husbands during the perinatal period. However, many husbands do not realize that women go through a lot of stress during these times and end up neglecting their wives. At times, some men tend to become violent towards their wives. Removing the fact that their wives are perinatal women, most women will become fearful of their husbands. When you add the perinatal factor, the family situation becomes very tense. In such a situation, the woman becomes traumatized because of the issue the family is in. At the same time, the man will result to old ways of beating up the wife to get what they want. As discussed by (), family violence escalates when women are pregnant, and, in most times, it can lead to the death of the woman and her unborn child. There is huge psychological harm that occurs to women who undergo physical abuse from the person supposed to be the first person they go to. If violence is involved between the couple, depression is likely to be heightened when women are in the perinatal stage.

Secondly, lack of adequate support from family and friends leads to episodes of depression in the perinatal period. Subconsciously, everyone wishes and knows that they have a support system that they can always depend on, especially when things don’t work out as they had earlier expected. For instance, when one is sick in hospital, they trust they can have someone to check up on them and ensure that nothing goes on. This is the same thing during the perinatal stages. Women trust that their close family and friends will always stand by them no matter what happens. However, this is not normally the case. When women are pregnant, especially when it is unplanned, most parents turn against their children, and the pregnant woman has to find a way in which they are going to survive. For novice parents, this situation can drain them and have psychological damage. At the same time, when friends do not show any form of support in times of need, it plays on the minds of the perinatal women. Many questions and cracks begin to appear in the heads of the victim. For example, victims begin to question why they showed up for their family and friends and why it is difficult to show up for them. According to research done by (), it shows that women solve most of their issues emotionally; therefore, it is harder for them to think critically, especially during pregnancy. At this moment, negative emotions begin to fill the brains of women. It is not uncommon to hear that most women will have ulcers and other health-related issues. These physical health issues add up and form mental health issues such as depression. In the past, women were known for only one thing: to take care of children and the whole family. However, the time has changed, and women are willing workers and are also prepared to have a social life. It is very degrading when women fail to have someone; they can hold their hand in the journey. For example, in the movie Tully (2018), Marlowe, who has had to bear with depression for two births, realizes that she is pregnant with a third child that they did not plan to have. At the same time, she realizes that her husband, friends, and family are not there for her in her most vulnerable moments. This is a harsh reality to learn, especially during the perinatal stages. To avoid episodes of depression coupled with instances of physical health damages such as ulcers that may be dangerous to the mother’s life, women need to form a close circle of family and friends that they can trust no matter the situation they face.

Furthermore, a woman in a family with mental illness is likely to suffer from depression if the prenatal period. Mental illness is a disease that can be spread in the environment that one is in. If one is in an environment that is always sad and low energy, a person will develop these energies. Therefore, when a woman has had a history of certain mental health issues such as depression, chances are pregnancy and post-pregnancy period are likely to affect the woman’s mental state. Before birth, many women tend to stay at home and take care of themselves just before birth. Because they are nothing that woman can do, such as going to work or even keeping themselves busy with workout, certain episodes in their lifetime begin showing signs. Without any support system such as a caring husband, a woman will likely fall deep into depression. Also, in the postpartum period, women who have no support system are also likely to relive depressive episodes in their lives. For instance, if the mother was being beaten up by their parents when the mother got the child, and this child is always crying, the mother might start relieving herself in the child and imagine what her parents would do to her if she were the one crying. In most situations, most mothers would turn these frustrations to the child and, in doing so, would end up regretting and falling into depression. At the same time, it is hard to recover from such depressive episodes, especially if the child’s mother did not receive any attention when they were young. Most women do not get counseling before pregnancy, making it difficult for them to deal with depressive episodes when they are pregnant and even after. Therefore, women need to seek professional help because, as earlier stated, more people are beginning to understand the state of depression and its impact on women.

However, despite the fact that more women in ordinary husband-wife relationships are more likely to suffer from depression because of various family factors, such as domestic violence, critics argue that women leading single-parent families suffer from depression more than married women. As discussed by Kim et al. (3), the prevalence of single mothers is at an all-time high. Evidence suggests that depression for single women stands at thirty-three percent while for married women stands at eight percent. Certain claims back up this information. For instance, more than fifty percent of the women claimed that they lacked enough resources to take care of themselves and their children in a survey carried out. Lack of finances leads to stress which undoubtedly carries a lot of stress. Added to this, because of a lack of finances, women cannot afford mental health services. Therefore, it makes sense to conclude that single mothers find a hard time adapting to their new lives of having and raising children—most single mothers attribute finances as their biggest factor to depression. Also, most men would rather settle for women with no children than for pregnant and women with children. Therefore, the number of single mothers is set to continue to grow, and with this, the number of depressed children is also set to go up.

Further evidence suggests that the number of depressed single mothers quadruples that of married couples. Despite the fact that most women attribute depression to lack of funds, () also states that loneliness and lack of masculine attention can be huge in depressive episodes. Despite the counterarguments raised, I oppose the argument that single mothers suffer from depression compared to married women. For starters, when we consider pathogenic factors, these factors do not select whether a woman is single or not. Evidence suggests that women in a married relationship are affected more by pathogenic factors. The main argument for single mothers is financial pressure. We know that single mothers suffer from financial pressure. We don’t know that women in married relationships suffer the same fate, if not worse. For single mothers, their finances only need to cover for themselves and their children. However, their finances need to cover for themselves, their husbands, and their children for married women. A married woman with children has to worry about the health of these children. Many young children require that they have regular health checkups. These checkups are expensive, and they are regular. At the same time, the woman has to breastfeed and ensure that food is ready when their husbands come home. The least that the husband could do is ensure that they take care and listen to their wives. However, when it becomes a habit that the husband does not cater to the wife’s emotional and mental state, it is given that the wife’s situation will be in a bad state. With this argument, it is safe to say that women in a relationship have a lot in their hands compared to single mothers.

The second evidence that single women suffer more from depression than married women is the lack of masculine protection and company. As stated, most men would rather date and marry women that are not pregnant and don’t have children. This argument in its self could carry weight in the argument that single women suffer more from depression. Lack of company from a husband can be very depressing. However, despite this challenge of lacking someone to keep them company, () suggests that being single can be a blessing in disguise and should not be a reason for depression. As single mothers, they have unlimited opportunities if they decide to open up to friends at the workplace and other social places. A group of good friends could chip in to help single mothers with any issue they face. Also, single mothers could be a source of strength for other single mothers out there.

When you compare this situation with perinatal women, one realizes the difficulties these women go through, especially in a marriage setup. Starting with the pressures that occur before birth, women are looked at differently, especially weight. Because women are very cautious of their weight, they have to watch what they eat out of fear that they may add weight and look bad. There is also the pressure that they have to eat the right nutrients for their unborn babies—always trying to think if one is eating the right nutrients for them and the babies is a huge struggle, leading to massive depression. Also, after birth, mothers struggle with weight loss and taking care of their children, depending on their conditions. If the child is born underweight, that can lead to depression because they have to think of what foods they have to feed their children. If the child is born overweight, they have to watch their child crying but can still not give them food because of weight problems. Also, miscarriage is a factor that has to be considered by many mothers. For novice parents, this can be a very traumatic and sad time. This terrible can live with a mother for a lifetime, and the thought never disappears. All in all, when you weigh the pros and cons of a perinatal woman and you compare them to the pros and cons of a single mother, it is safe to say that single mothers have a lot less to worry about. With the right people surrounding single women, it is possible to survive depression instead of perinatal women who have a lot more to deal with, and one simple adjustment to their lives does not solve the whole issue.

Again, marriage relationships are not always smooth. Looking back to the factors that lead to depressive episodes in perinatal women, we stated that domestic violence is one of the primary concerns. Many women end up in such situations, which is extremely dangerous if the child is unborn. As discussed by (), there were more than one million domestic violence cases in the year 2019. Out of this number, more than seven hundred thousand cases were deemed as criminal offenses. This number goes to show the mental state of most couples. It goes to show that there is a lack of proper systems that guard against these things happening. Almost half of the one million domestic cases were gone unreported. This means that couples do not consider this situation wrong, and most are willing to push through with the mistreatment. Most of these fights usually occur because of pressures that exist in the relationship. For instance, if a family does not have much financial aid, it will be a tense moment between the husband and the wife. After fights, what feels the room is a lot of regret for what happened. Normally, this is when depression kicks in. Most times, most people grow up wanting the best for their spouse and their children. No mother or father wants to bring a child into a violent space and hurt them. Therefore, after such fights, a feeling of failure dawns upon the mothers. In severe cases, most mothers try to take away their lives or even the children’s lives to remove the child from the stressful life they are living. When you compare this situation with that of single mothers, there is normally less regret. It is better off living alone than living with someone who does not care for the family and the child. Single mothers can stand up and provide and show love to their children without passing trauma to these children. One of the worst things a parent can do is to expose a child to the violent nature at such young age because, as () puts it, children can remember so much of what happens to them when they are young, and this lives with them to when they are young. Therefore, the counterargument posed that single women are more likely to suffer from depression than perinatal women is misplaced and more research needs to be done in the future to ensure that the facts are placed on the table to ensure that help is placed properly for perinatal women.

Conclusion

Perinatal women in families are more likely to suffer from depression because of more pathogenic factors—the evidence laid across shows that perinatal women are left vulnerable in their situation. The first evidence discussed that can lead to episodes of depression is the poor relationship between a husband and a woman. As partners, if the relationship is not harmonious, then the perinatal woman is the one that suffers the most after all; it is the relationship between the man and woman that comes first before the relationship between a woman and a child. A toxic relationship between a man and a woman would eventually lead to a toxic relationship between the mother and her unborn and her born child. To ensure that this factor is eliminated, proper counseling needs to be done. Both husband and wife need to be advised on marriage and how their relationship could be key to maintaining a positive mindset. The second factor was the lack of support from family and friends. Lacking people to turn to can be depressing to leave alone women in the perinatal period. The question then comes in, how does one solve the lack of a solid foundation to rely on? For starters, a foundation that supports would be a great start to ensure that all women should be cared for, especially before and after pregnancy. Lastly, a woman with mental health issues is likely to experience the same during these heightened times. While it is difficult to know whether one has fully healed from depression, mothers should always acknowledge where they come from and the toxic traits they have picked up. The next step will be to control them when they feel they are getting urges to showcase their anger and depression. Lastly, they should always seek professional help. Throughout the essay, it is clear that violent behaviors and lack of availability from people women trust are the true cause of depressive episodes in mothers. In this case, people should protect vulnerable mothers, especially in times where domestic violence is involved. Raising awareness on issues of depression in perinatal women is important. Acknowledging that depression is curable and takes time eventually prepares women about to enter into the perinatal stage. In addressing this topic, I realized that there are study gaps that need addressing. In the future, I would want to study if depression is the biggest mental health issue affecting women in their perinatal stage. In doing so, I would address other mental health issues that face women in this stage.

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