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Question: From the perspective of the medical model, post-natal depression is a diagnosable disease. What other approaches are there to understanding post-natal maternal depression?
Answer: Post-natal depressive disorders are very common in the days and weeks following the birth of a baby. There are three types of disorder and the most widely affecting is the aptly named ‘Baby Blues’, which according to Royal College of Psychiatrists website (Royal College of Psychiatrists, Post Natal Depression, 2005) affects around half of new mothers and causes tearfulness and irritability. It tends to start around a week postpartum and usually spontaneously resolves within a few days. The other end of the scale is a condition called ‘Puerperal Psychosis’, which is a severe, but thankfully uncommon acute mental illness that causes the mother to become manic, schizophrenic and/or depressed sometimes to the point of suicide or infanticide (Royal College of Psychiatrists, Mental Illness after Childbirth, 2005). ‘Post-natal depression’ is the label given to the depressive disorde...(short extract)
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- Subject: Nursing
- Course: K100
- Level: Degree
- Year: 1st
- Mark: 85%
- Words: 1568
- Date submitted: January 13, 2009
- Date written: August, 2004
- References: Yes
- Document type: Essay*
- Essay ID: 117
