Postpartum depression is recognized worldwide as an important public health problem, since it occurs frequently and has negative consequences on the health and well-being of the mother and children. According to WHOthis type of depression is one of those that causes the greatest disability in the world and in 2020 it was the main cause of disability in women.
In Mexico, postpartum depression is more frequent in women than in men, with figures of 10.4% and 5.4%, respectively, and this gap is much wider during the reproductive period. Having constructed motherhood as an idealized state of satisfaction and happiness has made it difficult to recognize that perinatal depression did not start until very recently, specifically in the 80s of the last century.
The prevalence of postpartum depression has gone from 6.6% to 24.6%
In the country, the prevalence of postpartum depression has increased from 6.6% to 24.6% (by clinical interview) from 1991 to the present, and from 10% to 20% by self-report in urban areas. There are very few published studies in the rural population and an estimated prevalence between 11% and 12.9%. In indigenous women, for their part, only a small group has been studied and depression of this type has been found in 7% of the sample.
Reducing symptoms and alleviating suffering should be the goal of institutions
Currently, postpartum depression is not treated in a timely manner in Mexico, which is an obstacle for the mother to meet the needs of her children and this, in turn, impacts the cognitive, behavioral and emotional development of the most little ones. Likewise, depression of this type has been related to a greater use of emergency services, nutritional problems, mother-child or low-quality interaction, something that causes insecure attachment and a greater risk of suffering from psychiatric disorders in infants, as well as respiratory problems and diarrhea in low-income countries.
For all these reasons, in Mexico the primary objective of the interventions must be to alleviate suffering and reduce the symptoms of depression suffered by the mother in order to reduce its consequences. This implies breaking with the social construction of maternity as a vehicle for reproduction and of the “good mother” as someone who must sacrifice everything for the benefit of the baby.