According to research released Tuesday, at some point between a pregnant partner’s first trimester and one year after childbirth, 10% of men have been found to suffer serious depression, with stress and sleep deprivation possible factors.
While, delighting in becoming parents, new fathers may be unprepared for a baby in their lives, who not only deprives them of their sleep, but leaves them confused and irritable, as well.
The analysis reveals, for long discussions on the connection between mental health and childbirth has been focused only on women, however, a sizeable portion of men are also known to experience prenatal and postpartum depression, as well.
The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found, at some point between their partner’s first trimester and a year after giving birth, 10.4% of men experienced serious depression, over double the depression rate for men in general. Further, American men (14.1%) compared with men in other countries are more likely to experience prenatal or postpartum depression. compared with men (8.2%) in other countries.
Lead author James F. Paulson, an Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk said, health professionals and the public view it as a disorder of motherhood and not a problem affecting fatherhood.
However, a couple’s relationship and the child’s development are affected, if either of the parents is suffering from depression, though further study is required.
Paulson informs of some studies that have documented negative child outcomes when it is the father who is suffering from depression, which alone makes this a significant public health concern and something requiring our attention.
Researchers analyzed the findings of 43 studies involving 28,004 participants from the United States, China, Ireland, Britain, Australia, including several other developed nations.
They found three to six months postpartum was the most vulnerable period for depression in men, with a quarter of them afflicted during this time period.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, an estimated 14% to 23% of women experience depression during pregnancy and 5% to 25% have postpartum depression.
Historically, paternal depression has not been well documented, with many of the meta-analysis studies only conducted in the last five to 10 years. Contemporary fathers are more vulnerable to it than previous generations, due to an increasing number of women in the workplace, leading to corresponding expectation of fathers shouldering more responsibilities at home.
Will Courtenay, a psychotherapist and researcher on paternal depression in Berkeley said, dads are expected to be more involved in parenting than ever have before, and while most of them welcome it, they have no models of what a dad is expected to do, creating uncertainty and leading to anxiety and depression.
Further, symptoms of paternal depression, such as, sadness, loss of interest, sleep problems, low energy, irritability, withdrawal, anger or detachment from the family are less likely to be recognized, in comparison to maternal depression, wherein a woman feels sad, emotional, withdrawn and constantly weepy.
Like maternal depression, paternal depression has negative effects on the children, as research shows children whose dads experienced depression during the prenatal and postpartum periods have emotional and behavioural issues. When, fathers are depressed during infancy, their children have a somewhat reduced vocabulary by age two.
In women, biological and hormonal changes associated with pregnancy and birth, have been linked to the condition, however, hormones are not the sole cause of pregnancy-related depression even in women.
The depression of either parent may include how the depression of one partner affects the other, including how intimacy, conflict management and division of responsibilities change after having a baby. Depression in one partner should prompt screening the other partner for it too.
