hw 35

What are the psychological issues that can be caused by birth?

New mothers can get something called postpartum depression. From what I have heard, this can result in a mother feeling anxiety because she feels that she is an inadequate parent. I wonder if that feeling of inadequacy often comes from the expectations mothers instill in themselves from our society. That would make the feeling of inadequacy a cause of postpartum depression which would account for the increase in amount of women who are diagnosed with postpartum depression. After reading the list of symptoms of postpartum depression from webmd.com, I notice that all of the feeling towards a patients baby are feelings that someone gets when they are around anyone for extended periods of time. I am sure that there is a cretin amount of pressure that comes with being around your own child but that could all connect back to our social obligations to be perfect parents. A question I would like to answer over the course of the unit is how do social obligations effect our mental health when it comes to child birth?

Another aspect of birth I would like to look further into throughout the unit is statistics on infant mortality, birth trauma, and maternal death. I had a discussion with my mothers friend who is a midwife who claims that home births reduce the risk of infant and maternal mortality. I have yet to find statistics on this but I remain optimistic about the claim. Even though women have been able to do births on their own sense the beginning of man kind we seem to have a desire to be assisted. What causes this pressure to get as much assistance with an act that seems to come naturally? It is the desire to do what is best for your unborn child. So I stand inconclusive on wether home birth is healthier then hospital births but I intend on researching the topic.