Question

It sounds like you are extremely passionate about mental health though specifically in a rural setting with a focus on women’s health during pregnancy and post-partum.

Answer 1

1) Ans) Mental health disorders globally are on a rise due to various reasons. Pregnancy is a stressful event in mothers and it can either exacerbate preexisting mental illness or can give rise to other mental health disorders.

There is poor awareness of mental health problems among pregnant women residing in rural part of southern India. The reasons for the same are lack of awareness, low levels of education, lower socioeconomic status, cultural beliefs and practices, lack of mental health services, and stigma associated with mental illness.

psychological problems during antenatal period, even though these pregnant women suffered these illness, they never sought for any treatment, who eventually had poor outcome during postpartum period. The reasons why they never sought help were beliefs by mothers’ family members and even the health workers that the existing symptoms during antenatal period were part of normal pregnancy. majority of mothers believed that these symptoms either do not occur in pregnancy and if occurred these symptoms were due to acts of witchcraft and did not need any professional intervention.

A number of social determinants including socio-economic statuses, race ethnicity and a lack of social support influence a woman’s risk of experiencing perinatal mental health issues and the likelihood that she will seek and receive adequate treatment. Fear of stigma can also prevent women from seeking care. However, even if a woman seeks care, she may not have Access to the services she needes. There is conducting routine screening for mental health problems during antenatal visits and treated as high-risk pregnancy. If done otherwise could bring down adverse maternal outcome and maternal morbidity. Providing high quality perinatal mental health services is particularly difficult in low-pressure settings with limited health workforces will improve mother's mental health in pregnancy