Never too early to get help for postnatal depression
IT'S never too early to get help help for postnatal depression was the message at a morning tea for mum and mums to be in Grafton today.
While mums swapped stories over tea and sandwiches in Market Square, event co-ordinator Lyndy Urane talked about how vital it was for mums to be to have their situations assessed as early as possible.
"People know about post natal depression, but what's less commonly known is mums can have the same sort of symptoms even during pregnancy," Ms Urane said.
She said it was possible to do a psycho social screen pregnant women using tools like the Edinburgh Depression Scale to predict how the pregnancy, birth and early care of the child will affect the mum's mental health.
"It's not only important for the mothers, but also the rest of the family as mums can project their problems onto the rest of the family, especially if they are not getting the support they need," she said.
Ms Urane said recent research has turned up some statistics to show dads can also benefit from support during this time of their lives.
"Research has shown that the partners of women who have these sort of problems in 50% of cases have depression as well," she said.
Ms Urane said minimising the effects of depression by early intervention benefitted babies as well as mothers.
"If mum is able to interact with her baby early on, that is going to be important to the babies development which avoids later problems," she said.
People who came along to the morning tea could take away a Beyond Blue resource package as well as information about which agencies they can contact for support.
