The Ills of Maternal Mental Illness

This week I discussed the synchrony of parent and infant emotions. Research shows us that a mother’s mental health can affect the development of an infant. This topic has a personal importance to me because my mother had mental illness while I was growing up. She never received medical intervention. It definitely affected my attachment to her.  The infant exposed to high stress or maternal depression can cause significant delays in social-emotional development of the child. Children can experience distress, rage, doubts, fear for themselves, fear for parents, puzzlement about the circumstances, not understanding the nature of the parent’s illness, guilt and blame, blaming themselves or being blamed, and even experiencing resentment. When researching how other countries tackle the issue of maternal depression, I found that England takes a pro-active approach to prevention of depression.  Mothers have a great deal of resources provided to them at every stage of pregnancy and continue throughout the first year of the child’s life.  They feel children raised in a home with mentally ill parent are “at risk” (Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network, 2010). They feel it can lead to a “lose of childhood” (Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network, 2010). They feel there is a clear connection between a parent’s health and some disorders, which may be evident in young children. After reading several articles, it seems like England takes a very similar approach to maternal mental illness as the United States does. I believe there is a clear attempt to educate families about the dangers of mental illness and depression throughout pregnancy and throughout the first years after birth. However, the risk of parents feeling a negative stigma with admitting they are feeling depressed is very high. Mothers who develop post-partum depression feel like failures themselves, because they are not “perfect” mothers. When I lived in England, I remember my friend, who recently had a baby, tell me she had to attend a meeting once a week to ensure she was not developing depression. It was required through the National Health Services (NHS) benefit program. She said they felt prevention and early detection was the key. I will continue to research this topic, as I feel it is important for infants to start out life with the best possible environment and interactions.  I want to ensure I am doing my part to help in any way I can. 

Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network. (2010). Keeping the Whole Picture in Mind:

Working with Families affected by Parental Mental Ill Health. page 5. South London, England. Retrieved from http://www.pmhcwn.org.uk/files/ThinkFamily.pdf