Africa-Press – South-Africa. While the world has been fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, mental health disorders have been neglected, especially among pregnant women.
This is according to Dr Lavinia Lumu, a psychiatrist at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital in Johannesburg.
Lumu said that while there was evidence that women were at higher risk for mental health, stigma stopped them from getting the help needed.
Speaking at the Africa Health conference in Midrand, Johannesburg, Lumu said healthcare workers needed to let go of the stigma and assist pregnant women.
“A lot of the psychiatric medication is relatively safe. Despite this, healthcare practitioners tell people to stop their medication. This is possibly influenced by stigma that we as health practitioners have.
“People don’t believe mental illness is real. A mother can breastfeed and take antidepressant medication safely. If you have a mother who is on medication, she must continue with it. Don’t tell a mother to stop her medication.”
She said healthcare practitioners continued to encourage pregnant women to stop treatment.
She added:
Lumu said mental disorders, which she called the forgotten pandemic, could present at any time.
“It is too long that mental health has been neglected. There is no health without mental health. There has been another pandemic going on. If we talk about depression worldwide, 300 million people are affected. During the [Covid-19] pandemic, an additional 76.2 million cases were reported.”
She said in South Africa, three out of 10 women in antenatal classes potentially have depression.
Some causes of depression are childhood trauma, intimate partner violence, lack of social support and teenage pregnancy.
“A depressed mother is unlikely to follow up with antenatal classes. They have an increased risk of substance abuse. A depressed mother who goes home is more likely to neglect their child,” she added.
Other than depression, anxiety disorders also posed a considerable risk for pregnant women, Lumu said.
“Anxiety does cause havoc. Prevalence of anxiety disorders amongst low-income pregnant women in urban South Africa is estimated at 23%.”
Some of the outcomes of anxiety in pregnant mothers include miscarriage, pre-term birth and low birth weight.
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