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Mothers Be HEARD
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Maternal Health & Website Philosophy

The focus of Mothers Be HEARD is primarily around the emotional/psychological aspects of maternal health for mothers with dependants. It assumes that most of the mothers that use this site currently have either pre-school or school aged children living with them.1

The emphasis in Mothers Be HEARD is on the relationship between maternal health and giving voice to the experience of motherhood. This website acknowledges that staying silent about the way we experience motherhood can have a negative impact on our wellbeing as people. Susan Maushart (1997) suggests that,

“…the forces that constrain women today are the ones that minimise the difficulties we face, insisting that motherhood is no big deal after all.” (The Mask of Motherhood, p.66).

Mothers Be HEARD aims to help put motherhood ‘on the map’ by encouraging women to talk about their experiences and not minimize them. This website suggests that maternal health is an outcome of women feeling comfortable talking about their experiences as a mother, without perceiving themselves to be a failure, ‘not coping’, or somehow betraying their children.

Amidst all the joys of motherhood, the experience can also be quite daunting, stressful and/or bring about a sense of disequilibrium – particularly for new mums, but also for ‘seasoned’ mothers with older children. There is a growing body of literature that is acknowledging the impact that motherhood can have.  Research has highlighted that the experience of motherhood can be peppered with times of dissatisfaction, frustration, fatigue, pressure, grief for the pre-motherhood life, guilt, depression, intra and interpersonal conflict, anxiety, and feelings of being consumed.2 All of these experiences can have a negative effect on a woman’s emotional well-being, and hence, her maternal health.

The experience of a woman’s maternal health in relation to her emotional and psychological well-being can be a dynamic, and often contradictory, process involving a range of emotions and psychological states.  Mothers Be HEARD  recognises this and aims to promote maternal health by honouring all the varied experiences that motherhood may bring, while not loosing sight of the importance of maintaining a sense of self that is independent to the identity of ‘mother’.

Other Aspects of Maternal Health

Maternal health, like all other holistic conceptions of health, encompasses the physical, social/relational, and emotional/psychological components of wellbeing for women who are mothers. From pregnancy to menopause and beyond, these components work as a dynamic interplay in the life span of a mother.

Upon having a child, physical aspects of maternal health can refer to issues such as the body healing post-birth, regularity of menstrual cycle, weight gain issues, impact on pelvic floor muscles, eating habits, and keeping fit. 

Social/relational aspects can include the country that a mother lives in (and whether there is political unrest or not), the safety of her neighbourhood, rural or city living, ease of access to services and facilities, the strength of a woman’s family/friend network, her socio-economic status, the level of home help she receives, the type of relationship she has with her partner – if she has one, who she lives with, the number of other children she might have, and how she bonds with her baby.

Emotional/psychological aspects of maternal health can include how a mother feels about her baby in pregnancy (whether it was planned or not), how she feels about her changed body shape pre and post-birth, the impact of her hormones on mood swings, her perception of herself, how much of a break she gets – and/or if she lets herself have a break without feeling guilty, and her expectations of motherhood vs. the reality of her experience.

A brochure on ‘Being a Mum’ by Parenting SA (a subsidiary  of Child and Youth Health) talks about how the experience of first time mums can be quite different from what was expected.  It goes on to list other issues that can confront mothers,

“Your relationship with your partner/baby’s father will be different now…..Many women give up a lot to become mothers….. New mothers can feel grief over the loss of their ‘old life’… even when they thought they were prepared for it. Many mothers who don’t work outside the home can sometimes feel isolated and under-valued…[whereas those] who continue to work outside the home find they have a lot of demands on their time and energy.  Caring for a baby ….. can be exhausting and sometimes it can feel like you have lost control of everything.” (2003, Parent Easy Guide, no.76).

Postnatal Depression Just Part of the Story

While postnatal depression (PND) is the experience of some, 88% of first-time mums experience postnatal stress (PNS); which may not develop until years after the birth of the first baby (LeBlanc, 1999, Naked Motherhood, p.9).  In an article entitled ‘Screening New Moms for Stress, Anxiety’ on WebMD www.webmd.com, Louise Chang looks at research by Miller (2006) suggesting that postpartum depression has become the focus to the detriment of considering the experience of stress and anxiety – more common in mums than clinical depression, and not necessarily linked.

Furthermore, one longitudinal study in the U.K. interested in the meanings that women attached to the experience of PND concluded that the experience of PND is over-pathologised.3 It submitted that consuming emotions in motherhood were more normal than not, and highlighted the numerous losses that a woman can face once they become a mother.  In previous research, Nicolson’s (1998) paper Talking About Early Motherhood: Recognizing Loss and Reconstructing Depression, discusses the possibility that individual women may not be depressed as much as elements of mothering may be identified as depressing.  She suggests that this changes the context of depression; moving the focus away from the individual and more toward the social arena, along with broadening definitions of PND.

For more information on PND, visit www.beyondblue.org.au. The following is an excerpt from their ‘home page’:

“What is Postnatal Depression?

Adjusting to life as a mother can be difficult. In fact, for many women, having a baby is the most significant life-changing event they will ever experience. Adjusting to this major life change, as well as coping with the day-to-day stress of a new baby, can make some women more likely to experience depression at this time, particularly if they've experienced depression in the past.

Some women may experience depression during pregnancy and this is often referred to as antenatal depression. Antenatal depression rates in Australia are generally lower than those experienced after the birth of a baby (postnatal depression) and are less than 10 per cent. Postnatal depression (PND) is the name given to depression that a woman experiences in the months after the birth of her baby.”

 

To learn more about the symptoms of PND, types of PND, risk factors, treatments, how to help someone, and how to stay well, just follow the links at www.beyondblue.org.au.

“When 88% of a particular section of a population are experiencing difficulties adjusting to what is, biologically speaking, the most fundamental experience of life perhaps we ought to be asking whether the way we expect women to be mothers is what is disordered. Could it be that the 'disorder' of postnatal stress and depression is, in truth, a collection of symptoms and indications of the disordered health of the society rather than an abnormality in our mothers?” (LeBlanc, 1999, Naked Motherhood, p.164).

 © July 2006 Felicity Chapman