After Chenzi Dong gave birth to her baby boy last year, she found herself on the brink of a breakdown.
“At times, I felt desperate,” the Melbourne lawyer said.
“Hearing the baby cry would make me tense up immediately, and I would feel terribly guilty if the baby was sick or uncomfortable.”
If you or anyone you know needs help:
- PANDA on 1300 726 306
- Gidget Foundation on 1300 851 758
- COPE Directory to find local perinatal care services
- Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467
- Lifeline on 13 11 14
- Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARNÂ on 13 92 76
- Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636
- Headspace on 1800 650 890
- MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978
Ms Dong, who migrated to Australia from China, said she felt neglected as her family’s attention was often entirely on her son.
“Rarely does anyone ask about how I’m doing. Or if they do ask, it’s just a perfunctory greeting,” she said.
“They don’t really care about my emotions or feelings, which makes me feel a bit let down.”
Ms Dong said she did not know where to turn for professional help, and as a busy mother, she often just pushed her feelings aside.
“It’s easy to neglect your own physical and mental health,” she said.
Ms Dong is among a large number of new parents who believe they have experienced, or have been diagnosed with, perinatal anxiety and depression.
Perinatal refers to the period of pregnancy and the year following birth.
Organisations such as Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA) have quoted research showing that about one in five women in Australia and one in 10 expecting or new fathers experience depression or anxiety during the perinatal period.
And a survey completed last year by Gidget Foundation Australia, a not-for-profit perinatal support service provider, found that 25 per cent of new parents in Victoria were unsure how to access professional support, while 33 per cent believed their symptoms were not severe enough to warrant professional help.Â
A new free perinatal mental health service opened at Monash Medical Centre in May. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)
The survey also found that parents from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities were more unlikely to seek help.
More than half surveyed said they assumed their symptoms were not severe enough to warrant seeking help.
To support new and expectant parents, the federal government has funded the rollout of dozens of Gidget Foundation Australia Perinatal Mental Health Centres, also known as Gidget Houses, around the country.
The latest clinics opened in Berry Springs in the Northern Territory and Launceston in Tasmania this month. New clinics were also set up in Clayton in Melbourne’s south-east and Fairfield in Sydney’s west earlier this year.
New centres have also been announced for the cities of Hume and Casey in Melbourne’s north-west and south-east.Â
Expectant and new parents experiencing perinatal depression and anxiety can access 10 Medicare bulk-billed psychological counselling sessions per year.
‘Seeking help is a sign of strength’
Cathy Ngo is urging new mums with anxiety or depression to seek professional help as soon as possible. (Supplied: Gidget Foundation Australia)
Alyssa Lalor, director of program delivery at Gidget Foundation Australia, said many parents from CALD communities might not recognise they had anxiety or depression because they did not have a history of mental health issues.Â
“The impact of them not seeking help is more along the lines of feeling isolated, being not connected, not having their village to support them, at a time that is supposed to be the happiest time of their lives,” she said.
Parental mental health
Sydney mum Cathy Ngo, a Gidget Foundation ambassador, said she also found it hard to seek help when she first became a parent and only sought professional help when her son turned one.
Ms Ngo said a lack of family support and limited understanding of mental health issues delayed her trip to the doctor, and that she found the free services to be “absolutely a relief”.
“My heritage is Vietnamese. In my culture, we don’t really talk about our feelings or what we’re going through,” she said.
“We are just expected to move on and be emotionally as strong as possible.
“That’s ingrained in the culture.”
Ms Ngo said she encouraged new mothers facing similar situations to seek professional help as soon as possible.
“Seeking help isn’t a sign of weakness. In fact, it’s a sign of strength.”
‘Higher levels of demoralisation’
Jane Fisher, director of Global and Women’s Health at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said becoming a parent was a major life challenge and everyone experienced some level of anxiety.
However, Dr Fisher said parents from CALD backgrounds faced additional hurdles.
Jane Fisher says many CALD women are reluctant to seek help for a number of reasons. (Supplied: Jane Fisher)
A 2021 study published in the European Journal of Midwifery on postpartum women from CALD backgrounds in Australia found they “manifest higher levels of demoralisation as well as anxiety and depression in the postpartum period when compared with their non-CALD counterparts.”
“They don’t really have access to their family [from their home countries], especially their own mothers. They rely much more on their partners to provide day-to-day practical and emotional support,” the study found.Â
“And they might come from a culture where these roles are very traditionally divided and where the care of baby is regarded as women’s work in which men are not very involved.”
Dr Fisher added that women who had mainly focused on their careers before becoming a mother also might not have had enough time to build a personal support network made up of friends and local community connections.Â
She suggested first-time mothers, including those from CALD backgrounds, could join new parent groups to meet other women who were at the same life stage.
PANDA offers resources in 40 different languages for parents. (ABC News: Gregor Salmon)
“Women have much higher needs for personal relationships — with parents, family, partners and peers — when they have a baby,” Dr Fisher said.
Ms Dong said she used to doubt her parenting approaches and worried that she was not a good enough mother.
However, joining a mothers’ group gave her a fresh perspective.
“I gradually realised — especially after participating in some new mothers’ group activities — that every mother has her own way of doing things, and there may not be a single ‘best’ method,” Ms Dong said.
Resources available
Experts have suggested that new mothers could also seek professional advice about residential early parenting services, such as “sleep schools”, to see whether they are suitable for them.
The secrets and science of baby sleep
Professor Fisher said many migrant women might not be aware of these services, and that language barriers increased their reluctance.
“It takes longer for [the women] to find out [about the services], longer for them to know they’ve got to navigate the referral and admission system,” she said.
“While interpreters can be found through either telephone interpreting services or perhaps a family member comes [to help], in general, [these] women won’t speak so easily about confidential concerns if an interpreter’s present.”
PANDA offers resources in 40 different languages for parents in Australia.
Julie Borninkhof, PANDA chief executive officer, said the agency had been working for years to ensure its resources were culturally appropriate.
“In the past 12 months, 1,897 callers to PANDA identified as culturally diverse, 281 callers requested an interpreter,” Ms Borninkhof said in a statement to the ABC.
“Having accurately translated information and skilled interpreters are vital when offering mental health support,” she said.
