The Impact of Postpartum Depression on Socio-professional Integration

Abstract

The modern woman nowadays is subjected to more and more challenges. Whether it is due to her work, her appearance or her marital status, she must always show that she is coping in the most efficient way. This constant measurement and confrontation of the performance achieved in a certain field leads to the perception of otherwise normal, physiological actions as stressful. The mother who raises her child wants to face the multiple challenges, even when she is being subjected to pressures from the family, her own requirements, values and beliefs and at the same time from the micro group she belongs to or from society. That's why her slip into depression is extremely easy. The support she might receive from family, friends, professionals can save her from further complications such as deepening depression, job loss, long-term loss of self-esteem, child neglect and child abuse, the transition to a suicidal act in a moment of imbalance or the transition to alcohol misuse, sometimes witnessed by the child. Identifying factors involved in the onset and maintenance of postpartum depression can help prevent it and provide early intervention within vulnerable families with the aim of making women stronger and children healthier and happier. Postpartum depression is a fairly common phenomenon in the female population, the cumulative forms giving a percentage of 31%, of which minor forms occupy 19% and moderate and severe forms 12%. Among the factors that have an important influence we list: a weaker support of the mother by her support group, problems related to the mother's low self-esteem, the more difficult temperament of the child who can be more agitated and disrupts the mother's sleep-wake rhythm, but also the existence of other previous episodes of postpartum depression of the mother and the number of previous births.