Bringing a child into the world is one of life’s greatest joys, but for some women, childbirth also brings unexpected challenges, including postpartum depression (PPD). Symptoms can range from slight, short-term effects — often called the “baby blues” — to more extreme and longer-term mental illness such as postpartum psychosis.
While demands on mothers today have prompted an increase in mental health challenges, the knowledge and support for women’s health in general has been waning over the years.
Pain that lingers
When my mother was in labor with me, the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck, and I had to be delivered by an emergency C-section. And when I gave birth to my son, my coccyx suddenly snapped, requiring medical intervention and months of physical therapy.
While I did not suffer from postpartum depression immediately after my son was born, I was physically impaired for months, which made bonding with him more difficult. I was unable to lift or carry my baby without difficulty, and my husband had to take on a larger role as a result. I also could not return to work.
Both my mother and I experienced much physical pain during the first year of our child’s life, which many say influences the child, who may unconsciously feel responsible for his mother’s pain. To this day, my now-adult son feels uncomfortable when I talk about what I went through giving birth to him. All moms want to be healthy and present for their newborns. Both birth trauma and postpartum depression interfere with that process.
How past trauma affects parenting
A National Institutes of Health (NIH) study found that parents who experience difficult childhoods — abuse, neglect, parents with mental illness — tend to, in turn, pass some of the effects onto their own children. According to the study, when mothers experience adversity in their childhood, it can negatively impact their mental health during pregnancy, which can affect their children’s mental health.
I would add that the mother’s birth experience can be re-experienced when she, herself, gives birth. The NIH study found that “maternal experiences of childhood neglect were associated with worse mental health both during pregnancy and after birth.” It was also linked to increased anxiety and depression in their children.
Moreover, reduced mental health in the mother can result in weaker connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex in the child, a connection that is critical for emotional regulation.
Broken system, rising symptoms
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently published a study describing a striking decline in maternal mental health and a corresponding rise in maternal suicide. News outlets have called the findings “alarming” and “disturbing,” and have reached out to experts in the field to explain the study’s implications.
For those of us in the mental health field, the news comes as no surprise. Speculation about the meaning of the new study prompted one radio show host to ask me if this demonstrates how women have gone too far in their attempt to “have and do it all.” He (yes, the interviewer was male) admitted that his comment may have sounded “sexist.”
More accurate is that his comments oversimplified the issue. It’s no exaggeration to say that mothers today raise the kids, clean the house, maintain the social calendar and work increasingly long and stressful hours compared with their own mothers. An increasing number of mothers are also the primary providers for their extended family members, often taking on the responsibility of aging parents.
But quitting the workforce to raise kids is often not an option. In today’s economy, raising kids costs more than ever before and requires a two-person income.
Now imagine what that means if you’re a single mother. Imagine, too, that you live two states away from family members, not just two blocks away, or even in the same town.
It means your access to child care is increasingly scarce, unless you can afford a full-time nanny. The average cost of child care across age groups in Los Angeles, for example, ranged from $268 to $4,220 per month — with an average price of $1,430 per month in 2022. That was before the more recent economic downturn.
Unfortunately, the large disparity in income between the very rich and the disappearing middle class is rapidly increasing as the middle class becomes more economically challenged.
Equally disturbing is that in contrast to some countries, maternal well-being in the U.S. is not a priority — and neither is mental health in general. Recent cuts in mental health funding for everyone from veterans to nonprofit clinics, including Planned Parenthood, demonstrate this lack of priority.
While some countries offer time off to both new mothers and fathers, few American companies offer paid maternal leave, much less paternal leave.
Making maternal health a priority
Maternal mental health is not a niche concern; it shapes the well-being of our communities now and for generations to come.
Reducing funding for maternal physical and mental health will prove far costlier than any savings, because the health of mothers is the health of the nation.
Christi Taylor-Jones is a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified Jungian analyst. She is the author of “Touched by Suicide, A Personal and Professional Perspective on the Longing for Death and Rebirth” and “Midlife Parenting, A Guide to Having and Raising Kids in Your 30s, 40s and Beyond.” She raised her son as both a married and single mother.
