April 28, 2008
Gender and Postpartum Depression
In one of my other classes we are giving group presentations, and one of the groups had mentioned that the gender of your baby may be an indicator of the severity of a woman's postpartum depression. One of the studies (linked) was done in China. My point of view is that the study showed that society's view of a gender can have an affect on an individuals health.
8 comments:
I think postpartum depression is a super interesting topic because it is kind of a double standard against women. For staters, women as new mothers, are expected to be caring and nurturing knowing exactly how to take care of this new born life they have been given to raise. But at the same tie, they are expected to take care of themselves after they have just delivered a human life and require their body to recover from this physically demanding episode. More women than not suffer postpartum depression and are forced to hide it so they don't come off incapable of handling their children. This is why many women ignore the signs of depression that are very natural after child birth and end up killing her children, such as Andrea Yates in Texas. I am all for medication that can aid in making the transition to pregnant mom-to-be to a mother in order to eliminate some of the pressures of having a baby.
I would agree that the society that you are in does play a role in your depression. If there is a strong urge to have a male child then you may be depressed when you have a female child of vise-versa. I think that we need to be glad that we have a healthy baby rather than get depressed over the fact that it may not be the sex that we originally hoped for.
After reading the summarization of the study, I think that using a study from China where such a high premium is placed on having male children and since the number of children that you can have is still limited by the government, it would come as no surprise that there is an elevated risk of post partum depression in women when they have daughters. So it makes you wonder if this is a cultural stress that is added to the whole birthing process or would these women have suffered post partum depression at the basic same percentages if their country put a premium on having daughters over sons?
Did you notice that in a previous post that there was a study done in France where the opposite results were reported (How depressing, it's a boy). In that study although it was done with a small number of mothers, they were more depressed when they gave birth to boys than when they gave birth to girls. Perhaps a differing cultural attitude had some influence?
I think this is a really interesting topic and not one that is addressed enough. Women think they have to hide this feeling of depression after giving birth or they will be viewed as an incapable mother. I think it needs to be more done that tells women that this feeling of depression after childbirth is normal and is not something to be ashamed of at all. I think mothers need to be told to expect it and be ready to take medications for it, to help put an end to this incidents where mothers just can't take it any more and do really crazy things.
I agree with cubbies, I think society as a whole places a premium on male children. They are pushed to be more successful and they carry on the name, and truthfully, they probably make the fathers happier when a male comes out of the womb over a female. I think this could be one of the main reasons why the study shows that women are more likely to experience postpartum depression after female babies are born versus male babies.
I think society has a lot to do with postpartum depression. For example, when society is influencing you to believe that boys are more valuable for work purposes and carrying on the family name, I could understand how having a girl could lead the mother into a depressed state. However interesting this theory is I think much more research needs to be done. I think in general post-partum depression needs to be brought into the light, studied and ultimately dealt with for the woman’s health and well-being.
I have found that this is a very real occurrence in some mothers. A friend of mine was a new mother and a couple of months after she had her baby she didn't want to talk to people and ended up losing a lot of weight. Her husband noticed the difference right away and she went to the doctor. She was able to receive medication that would balance out her hormones which was the cause to the depression. I found it interesting the language that she used when talking about her problems. She felt first that no one should know that she was suffering with depression. Because of the possible negative attitudes felt towards the mother. Even though it was never stated I never would have linked it to the possibility of her dealing with the gender of the baby.
I also agree that society as a whole places an great deal of emphasis on having a boy. If a mother is set on a having a boy, but then has a girl it can lead to postpartum depression. There has always been an emphasis on having a male child because it allows for the family name to continue on. Until recently, it wasn't common for women to have hypenated lastnames so that their name will live on as well.
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