Postpartum Depression

In reading Anger and Tenderness by Adrienne Rich, I felt uncomfortably sympathetic with the mother who had committed infanticide due to depression. I don't condone infanticide by any means. Rich's "Of Woman Born" was published in 1976 and I don't think postpartum depression was considered an actual illness during that time. Perhaps if the woman had been able to get the help she so desperately needed, her children would not have been killed. Here was this woman in serious trouble and because she was expected to do everything on her own as a mother, she spiraled downward and hit absolute rock bottom. And yet, she had a group of women sympathizing with her plight. Obviously this woman was not the only one who had moments of doubt and loathing. She had just acted upon them.

I feel like even today postpartum depression is still a big thing. Just doing a search on "postpartum depression blog" brought up TONS of links to different mommy blogs that deal with postpartum depression. One really great one is http://www.postpartumprogress.com/. It is an award-winning site founded in 2004 and helps moms all over deal with PPD.

According to a Northwestern Medicine study, 14% of women become depressed after giving birth. They studied 10,000 women which means that 1400 of them were depressed. When you think about it that's really a lot. This was a study so the women were contacted to do this. In my opinion not every woman is going to be assessed for depression after giving birth. How many women are going around being depressed and not receiving the help they need? I think a lot of women also won't ask for help either. I used to be depressed and I know I never really asked for help. Even though the causes of depression are different, not wanting to seek help because of the social stigma against depression is the same.