The statistic that one in seven Australian women will experience postnatal depression in the year after giving birth is sobering.
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By those numbers, it’s likely that each of us will know someone who has, or will, experience the mental health condition during their life.
Like many mental health conditions, postnatal depression has carried a stigma for generations that is slowly being broken by public conversation.
Initiatives like Cuddle Up Baby Care are milestones in the fight to have conditions such as postnatal depression understood for what they are – illnesses.
People who don’t understand postnatal depression often dismiss those suffering the debilitating condition because of a perception that a new mother should be a glowing ray of happiness.
Family and friends might think a new mother should be on top of the world, but that person might feel like they have hit rock bottom and they don’t know why.
How a new mother suffering from postnatal depression feels is not a choice, it’s a matter of chemicals in the brain.
It is rightly becoming widely accepted that people should seek help for mental health issues just as they would for other health conditions.
Congratulations to Hunter midwives Liz Holle and Alex Collins who created Cuddle Up Baby and have given new mothers in Maitland an avenue to seek vital personalised help for postnatal depression.
Aside from the much-needed practical assistance that Cuddle Up Baby will offer to new mothers, the launch of the service has reignited public conversation about the issue, which will hopefully continue to reduce stigma related to postnatal depression.
Hopefully services like Cuddle Up Baby help struggling new mothers seek help and realise that they are not alone.
