Mental Health (Peri-Natal) | Essay

Mental Health (Peri-Natal) 1
Mental Health (Peri-Natal)
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Mental Health (Peri-Natal) 2
Introduction
Every woman going through pregnancy and birth faces some changes in responsibilities
and roles during the first postnatal year which brings major changes socially and emotionally in
the life of the woman. During this time, there are greater chances of onset or relapse of the
problems related to mental health. This condition is known as a perinatal mental health condition
(Highet and Taylor, 2017). This condition is very common in which common symptoms are
depression and anxiety in the women in their postpartum period. In Australia, this mental
condition affects approximately 16% of women. Because of which the Australian government
advised women to undergo screening tests regularly (Buist, 2014). The Australian government is
taking various steps to broaden the health system according to which prevention is the first step
and they are focusing on the fact that without mental health there is no health. Funds were
provided by the National Perinatal Depression Initiative in 2008-2013 to different territories and
states so that the services for improving the perinatal mental health of women can be enhanced
(Rowe, Wynter, Burns and Fisher, 2016).
Factors Impacting Perinatal Mental Health:
Various screening programs are introduced by the government of Australia but their
implementation to reduce this mental condition is affected by several social and political factors.
These factors that influence mental health are lack of time for screening or taking one’s care,
appropriate funding for prevention or infrastructure for follow up, and insufficient training of
staff. Different social groups in Australia have different barriers in focussing on their mental
health and implementing preventive services. For example, women from refugee backgrounds
are unable to access health services in Australian because of various reasons like inappropriate
healthcare literacy and the absence of interpreters in hospitals. Additionally, these refugee