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PSI believes that social support is essential to assure the
mental health of women, children and their families during
pregnancy and the postpartum period.
Eighty percent of women around the world will experience changes
in their mental health after giving birth, ranging from mild to
severe with potentially serious repercussions for the
psychological, social and physical health of mothers, children
and families. Isolation during pregnancy and the postpartum
period intensifies the many challenges facing women as they make
the transition to motherhood and puts them at greater risk for
postpartum mood disorders. These disorders may include the
blues, depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive
disorder, and psychosis. All of these conditions are often
generically referred to as postpartum depression.
PSI believes that social support creates an environment in which
women learn that they are not alone, they are not to blame and
they will get better. Proper support must include empathy,
information, and practical help that leads women and their
families to effective treatment.
When women and their families do not receive social support
during pregnancy and the postpartum period, outcomes encompass
the inability of the mother to function, delays and other
problems for the developing child, disruption in the mother-baby
bond, and overall impairment of family functioning. At the most
serious end of the spectrum is maternal suicide and
infanticide.
In
our fifteen years of experience, we can state that when social
support is made available, the functioning of women, children
and their families is vastly improved. Social support greatly
reduces the intensity and duration of symptoms of postpartum
depression because it breaks the isolation through a shared
experience, it is personally empowering, and it validates and
normalizes the mother’s experience which promotes healing and
recovery.
Every mother is entitled to a social support network in her
community. It is time for every community around the world to
value, honor and support mothers not only in words but in
action.
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Please support Bill #2380, the Melanie Stokes Postpartum
Depression Research and Care Act, to provide research on and
services for individuals with postpartum depression and
psychosis, which was introduced in Congress on June 28th,
2001 by Bobby Rush, 1st District, Chicago, IL.
www.postpartumNY.org
631 422-2255
Postpartum Resource Center of New York, Inc.
www.postpartum.net
805 967-7636
Postpartum Support International
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