Postpartum may be fueling suicides

• Source: Global Times
• [08:58 August 25 2010]
• Comments

Sad state of affairs

Public hospitals across the country fail to treat patients with postpartum depression, despite the fact that there are an increasing number of women being affected, mostly those born in the 1980s and 90s, according to a doctor from the Shanghai No.1 Maternity and Infant Care Hospital.

"Hospitals don't have qualified staff to provide the psychological care that these patients need," the woman, who preferred not to be named, told the Global Times Tuesday. "Doctors just check to make sure mothers, who have just given birth, are physically alright before releasing them."

The problem is that few women recognize that they suffer from depression and seek medical help at clinics, said Qin Hai'ou, a psychological counselor who specializes in treatment for depression at the Shanghai Zhiyin Psychology Consultation Center.

According to her research, some 50 percent of women in the city, who are born in the 1980s or 90s, have suffered from depression at some point in their lives, while 10 percent of these women have postpartum depression - though they may be unaware.

"It's an emerging problem," she told the Global Times Tuesday, adding that older generations are less affected by the disorder because they tend to hold different mentalities.

"Younger women tend to get easily depressed over marital  affairs because they think that their husband should pay lots of attention to them," she said. "Whereas in the past women thought it was their job to take care of their husband."

Qin added that more support is desperately needed for this developing demographic before too late.