No Change For Females

 

Its official, I’m one of the older generation now as my daytime companion is radio 4! If John Humphries from the early morning ‘Today’ programme tells me the sky is green, I would probably believe him. Woman’s Hour keeps me informed and when I need background noise, the chatter from the radio is ideal. Perhaps it is true that you do turn into your mother because I remember the equivalent to radio 4 being a feature in my teen years as my parents tuned in to the transistor radio. Daughter beware, as she tells me she has migrated from radio 1 to radio 2!

Recently I was listening to radio and TV items about post natal depression, with the aim to educate, increase awareness and concerns. I had quite a serious PND following the birth of my first child over 40 years ago and I am dismayed to hear that relatively little has changed in either awareness, attitudes or treatments.

My own story mirrors those of the mothers who were interviewed in that I had uncontrollable thoughts about injuring my baby. Today there are 1 in 10 mothers who suffer from PND and in all females, 1 in 4 will have some kind of mental illness in their lives. Quite high statistics and not much difference in 40 years. All the mothers interviewed had not voiced their feelings for months as they feared the associated stigma and were concerned that their child would be removed. My intrusive fearful thoughts started the day after my baby was born and I to was so frightened that I told no one and three months went by before I told my husband.

The treatment and medication that I was given are the same today as they were all those years ago and there continues to be an associated stigma. How sad that little has changed, even though there have been major medical advances over the years. If 1 in 4 females will have some kind of mental illness in their lives, that equates to a lot of suffering and high costs, both personal and for the NHS. I recovered with the support of my husband and family but it was five years before I felt comfortable and secure enough to discuss my experience with outsiders. I had an article published by a Mother and Baby magazine about my experience and although that was written in 1977, mothers on the radio interviews could write the same today. How sad. In some areas there are few changes but I hope that in female mental health, there will be more improvements in the next forty years. 

I am so pleased that some things have not changed as I still have the support of my husband and family, of which I am very thankful. One thing that has changed considerably is technology, as I now listen to my radio, not on a transistor but on my ipod sat in its dock.