I seen a page on facebook explode last night because of this topic.
MIND (UK leading charity in mental health) states
Doctors can only formally diagnose you with a perinatal mental health problem if you are pregnant or have given birth to a child in the past year
But if your partner is pregnant or recently gave birth, you may also experience mental health problems during this time. For example, some studies show that partners can experience depression or anxiety around the time of their child's birth
Now I know males mental health is real - especially after the birth of a child but it should be conflated just because it happens around the birth of a baby.
Women already struggle to admit and talk about PND. Its hounded women since time began. Women were routinely put in asylums, locked away, called looney, hysterical, mental, unloving, unnatural because they were suffering PND. Its very fucking hard to tell some one you don't love your brand new, pink and gorgeous smelling baby because you are unwell. The stigma for women around PND is still very real.
The services women have set up for this is dreadful. Once you get to the end of a very long waiting list, you might get offered a text counselling session with a councillor on line.
Which is fucking incredible actually because these women are seriously unwell and it can have life long effects for the new babys development.
Yet now men have PND too - well this new. Are we now going to have to share these already shite services with men too - how far down the list will that take women?
The NHS website doesnt even suggest childbirth is a trigger for PND. Not sure which melon thought they would forget to add that trigger. You know as PND comes after having a baby
The strain the female body goes under in labour is traumatic to the body and also the mental health of the mother. A massive drop in two vital hormones which can take SIX months to get back to normal levels. 1in 4 women develop anaemia through rapid blood loss in birth. Add in birth trauma or the mum being treated like shite by the midwives and doctors.
The body and the mind is exhausted physically and mentally because of pregnancy and child birth. This is PND
Men do not suffer PND, they suffer adjustment disorder, depression, anxiety, PTSD. it just so it happens at the same time a new baby has come along - but that doesnt mean its PND
We need to be really really careful about making PND inclusive of men because it waters down the shit services women already receive. It diminishes the traumatic event that some women labours are - events that women still get told to stop shouting' or "just get on with it", still laughed at ( The new TV program 'This is gonna hurt')
So no, im not going to sit up and take notice because all these men are now suddenly appearing with PND, I mean when was the last time women were talked about on the News about PND?
This thread highlights the internalised misogyny that so many women have towards themselves.
Yes we can claim PND as women only and triggered by giving birth and we should be demanding better services to help women with PND.
Yet we can also agree that men and partners can suffer depression around the time of the birth.
We are not in the same boat and it needs addressing separately.