Throughout the semester, this course has taught me much about the importance of birth as well as its concern within the public health sector. One important idea that I feel I’m taking from this course is that birth affects everyone. For most, they either take part in the birth practice by having a baby of their own, their partner does, their parent or sibling does, and so on. For this reason, I feel it is of great importance that we all acknowledge and work to reduce problems facing birth across the globe. One such application of this idea I came across while researching for my presentation topic, postpartum depression. While it is to the most part overlooked, postpartum depression can affect fathers as well as mothers, and to those having a surrogate carry and delivery their baby as well as those going through the birthing process themselves. Paternal postpartum depression is most affected by their partner having postpartum depression. New statistics note that rates of paternal depression when a partner also suffers from the disease ranges from 24% to 50%, a significant percentage of the population. In this way, one’s actions, feelings and state of wellness affects not only themselves but those around them, such as their partner or children. However, many people are unaware of the intricacies involved with the birthing process, from before to during pregnancy and even its affects after delivery of the baby. For this reason, I think it is imperative that public health officials work to increase knowledge and awareness surrounding the importance and necessity of healthy birth practices to ensure health outcomes of babies and their mothers. While this is a big undertaking, what specific steps can we take to increase awareness and knowledge about birth and its importance as a public health necessity?

Source:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2003.02857.x/full

Goodman, J. (2003). Paternal postpartum depression, its relationship to maternal postpartum depression, and implications for family health. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 45(1): 26-35. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.