The pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but for pregnant women and those joining their growing families, COVID-19 has only exacerbated some of the struggles that can accompany bringing a baby into this world, specifically those related to mental health.
“One thing that I have definitely noticed and seen more and dealt with more is the number [of women] with anxiety and depression,” says Brittney Pohler, an NCCPA-certified OB-GYN practicing physician in College Station, Texas. Health. “It has really grown through our patient population – not just in our pregnant, pregnant, and postpartum mothers, but in women in general as well.”
Pohler says the isolation that comes with social distancing is hard on mental health. “We are starting to not be able to have baby showers or at least the big gatherings and celebrations that you normally want when you are expecting or adding your family, be it the first or the fourth, the fifth or the sixth,” she says. “You want to celebrate and welcome those who are, and we’re telling you to take those social distancing guidelines seriously.” While adhering to those guidelines keeps pregnant women as healthy as possible right now, they also end up feeling “locked inside their home for a large part of their pregnancy,” she says.
New mothers, of course, also feel the effects of isolation. “You can’t go out with the new baby, maybe you can’t get family or friends to come over as you did before to maybe help you, so it’s extremely isolating and difficult for these women.”
Pohler has felt the mental health effects that can come from being a new and pregnant mother, as well as those surrounding a medical condition that needs treatment. “When I was in school in Pennsylvania, I have diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis and I was immersed in this intense infertility journey,” she says. “Through all the appointments and office visits, the second opinions, the ultrasounds, the procedures, and the surgeries, you really start to see how you want to be treated and you see that people do it right and people don’t do it as well. well”. Pohler says.
It was that experience that helped Pohler realize the mental health aspect of being an OB / GYN physician assistant. “When I started, I didn’t fully realize how much mental health I’d do until I got out,” he says. “Sometimes you’re the only person they feel comfortable talking to, so you end up being an idiot and trying to take care of your people.”
Therefore, in addition to taking physical care of the women he works with, he also feels the responsibility to defend their mental health. “There has always been a stigma around mental health, and especially women and postpartum health,” she says. “I think there is this misconception or misperception on social media that you were given this baby and you should fix your hair, be making dinner, and be happy about it.” But Pohler wants to remind people that when it comes to mental health – depression, anxiety, postpartum depression, etc. – “those are often really complex chemical and hormonal processes that are out of our control.” So he tries to help women get the help they need. “I really try to defend that this makes you the best,” she says.
While Pohler says she has always seen women in her practice seek help for anxiety and depression, she believes that quarantine and social distancing have led to an increase in mental health problems for women. “We are all creatures of habit,” he says. “We like our stability, and with the coronavirus, although we focus a lot on the physical aspects of our health, I think we have somehow forgotten some of the mental aspects.”
Sometimes, Pohler says, mental health problems emerge in more subtle ways that many women don’t immediately notice. “Sometimes patients don’t know that that’s necessarily what they’re struggling with,” he says. “They start out with problems with insomnia or they can’t sleep or have racing thoughts, and then they’re able to talk to them and bring them back to when it all started, and a lot of them focus on the self. Quarantine.”
According to Pohler, there are small adjustments you can make to take better care of your mental health during the pandemic. She suggests “taking a few minutes a day, a week, to think about yourself, listens, makes sure you get adequate sleep and rest and eat a good, balanced diet.” It also urges everyone to continue practicing social distancing and to continue wearing a mask in public when social distancing is not possible. “It is not just for you, but also to protect others,” she says, adding that helping others is the reason she and her colleagues continue to serve during the coronavirus pandemic. “It helps most of us do this because it is a calling,” she says. “Just knowing it’s for a purpose bigger than ours.”
