2007年VOA标准英语-Some Urge Routine Screening for Postpartum Depr

By Leta Hong Fincher
Washington, D.C.
06 February 2007
 
watch Depression report

Postpartum depression affects about 15 percent of women in the weeks and months after giving birth. As Leta Hong Fincher reports, some health professionals and advocates are urging routine screening of new mothers for mental health problems. 

 
Adrienne Griffen
Adrienne Griffen quit her job seven years ago to stay at home and fulfill¹ her dream of raising children.  But after the birth of her second baby by emergency Caesarean section, that dream went terribly wrong.

"I knew from the moment he was born that something wasn't right, because I remember lying on the operating table and feeling no connection whatsoever² with this baby that just had been born, and it just continued to get worse from there," she recalls.

Griffen says she felt so desperate and depressed³ that she screamed at her baby whenever he cried. At her six-week postpartum medical exam, she said her obstetrician did not ask about her emotional problems, so her depression continued.

"I was just so angry, so irritable,” says Griffen. “My husband would walk in the door and I would just hand him the baby and walk out. I'd call him at work and say, 'I'm losing it, I'm screaming at the children, I can't get it together, what is wrong with me, I think I'm having a nervous breakdown⁴.' "

 
New mothers are much more likely to suffer from depression or other mental effects
Griffen is not alone. A recent study in Denmark shows that just 10 to 19 days after giving birth, women with newborns are seven times more likely than women with older infants to suffer severe mental illness. The study is outlined in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  It says that problems range from anxiety and depression to bipolar disorder⁵ and schizophrenia.

Rapid hormonal⁶ and physiological⁷ changes after childbirth can trigger mental illness, especially if the mother is sleep deprived and lacks social support. But doctors say postpartum depression is consistently undertreated.

Jennifer Grosman is a clinical psychologist in Washington. She says that typically only one in five mothers suffering from depression is diagnosed. And only one in five of those women actually receives treatment.

 
Jennifer Grosman
"Women with postpartum depression are very ashamed of the problems that they're having,” she says. “They think that they're supposed to be happy and enjoying being a new mother and if they're not, then they really feel very guilty about that. So they may go to great lengths to hide how they're really feeling and sort of put on a happy face."

Grosman says she became interested in postpartum depression after she herself suffered from the illness with the birth of her first child. She says too few doctors screen for postpartum depression in new mothers, and that a routine questionnaire would be an effective way to catch many of the cases that otherwise go undetected.

"Obstetricians are reluctant to ask questions about a woman's emotional state because they're afraid of opening a can of worms that they don't know how to deal with,” says Grosman. “But if they were properly educated and informed and given the proper referral sources, then they would be better equipped to help serve their patients."

More and more health professionals agree that new mothers should routinely be screened for postpartum depression. Last April, New Jersey⁸ became the first U.S. state to pass a law that requires doctors to question new mothers about their emotional state before they leave the hospital---and again weeks later.

Adrienne Griffen says her depression lasted six months before it was finally diagnosed and she was treated with antidepressant medication and talk therapy. She says her problem could have been resolved earlier if her doctor had simply asked her how she felt.

"Throughout all this I just kept looking for somebody to give me this big verbal hug and for somebody to say, ‘You know what, it's O.K. People have felt like this, it's O.K., here's what's going on, here's what we can do to help you,’ and there was none of that. It was just sort of like this hands-off kind of thing."

Griffen now has three children and volunteers for a Washington branch of Postpartum Support International, a group that advocates congressional legislation to mandate⁹ screening for new mothers.

1 fulfill   

vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意

参考例句：

• If you make a promise you should fulfill it.如果你许诺了，你就要履行你的诺言。
• This company should be able to fulfill our requirements.这家公司应该能够满足我们的要求。

2 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。

3 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

4 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

5 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

6 hormonal   

adj.激素的

参考例句：

• Some viral diseases are more severe during pregnancy, probably tecause of hormonal changes. 有些病毒病在妊娠期间比较严重，可能是由于激素变化引起的。
• She underwent surgical intervention and a subsequent short period of hormonal therapy. 他接受外科手术及随后短暂荷尔蒙治疗。

7 physiological   

adj.生理学的，生理学上的

参考例句：

• He bought a physiological book.他买了一本生理学方面的书。
• Every individual has a physiological requirement for each nutrient.每个人对每种营养成分都有一种生理上的需要。

8 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

9 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。