Take care of mothers and thus take care of us all.
Under this premise, Esperanza Amado (Don Benito, Badajoz, 40 years old), a nurse specializing in mental health and perinatal care and a doula —a person who accompanies and supports women during the vital process of maternity—, works at the Regional Hospital of Malaga.
Amado has also been linked to the European Institute of Perinatal Mental Health since 2012, directed by the child and perinatal psychiatrist Ibone Olza, where she has learned a lot: “Above all, by taking care of the birth and upbringing of babies we can help prevent mental ailments into adulthood, as well as making the world a safer, kinder, and less competitive place.”
In this institution, she has coordinated the Mamá Importa forum since 2016, a network of mothers that often becomes, in her words, a lifeline for women with especially complex situations.
This forum, a pioneer in Spain, seeks to support pregnant women and new mothers who have any type of psychological suffering or mental disorder that makes it difficult or prevents them from fully enjoying motherhood.
Understanding that these situations occur is easy if you refer to data from the World Health Organization (WHO): 25% of pregnant women experience some type of psychological discomfort.
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ASK.
World Maternal Mental Health Day is commemorated on the first Wednesday of May, this 2023 was on the 3rd, although awareness is extended for a week from the 1st to the 7th of the same month.
Does this day need to exist?
ANSWER.
Yes, because it is a fundamental right.
But, in addition, it is that by taking care of maternal mental health we will achieve a much healthier society in all aspects, not only on a mental level, but also on an organic level.
It has been shown that at the time of childbirth, due to the stress suffered, pathologies and diseases such as hypertension or diabetes, which have a genetic and family origin, can be activated.
In other words, by taking care of the mother at that moment, not only her mental health is taken care of, but her health in general.
If the mother is well, she will offer better care to her baby and achieve a healthier environment.
At the Institute of Perinatal Mental Health we have that ecosystemic perspective in which we not only try to care for the mother, but also to extend that care to all aspects of life, including nature.
Q.
Is maternal mental health invisible?
R.
Maternal mental health, as well as mental health in general, is not so invisible, but rather overshadowed or discredited.
Let's say that it is not allowed to suffer from a mental pathology when the baby and the mother have come out alive from childbirth.
For example, when a woman has experienced malpractice or misconduct by health professionals, she does not have the right to complain.
But it is not only necessary to see that the baby and the mother have come out alive, but also how the baby and mother have been treated at such a vulnerable moment as childbirth.
A birth, even in the worst possible situation, can be precious if you are in good company.
It all depends on what is happening around that time.
Q.
Can having a good or bad delivery influence the aftercare that the mother will give her baby?
A.
Without a doubt.
What's more, it will influence the way in which that baby will become an adult.
In the end, it is about care being produced with love and humanity, with respect and with that ecosystemic perspective that I mentioned before.
Taking care of the moment of labor you are taking care of everything that will happen from then on.
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Q.
How should these possible mental health problems be solved in maternity?
R.
Actually, you have to continue doing what is already being done.
Become aware that we are mammals, that we need each other as a group and that we have to take care of each other.
That's the way this is going to get better.
I like to speak in the present because it means that it is already bearing fruit.
And I really feel that way.
The change has already been made.
Now we have to improve it: more mothers are needed in the expert committees, because mothers are still not listened to very much, they are the true experts in maternity.
Q.
Currently, only a few Spanish hospitals have programs for perinatal mental health.
Would it be necessary for this service to exist in all centers?
R.
Not only necessary, but essential.
Proper care is essential, understanding that the mother-baby dyad is an indivisible unit: if one is fine, the other is fine.
Until you understand this there is no perinatal look.
Professionals are still not being taught completely well in universities.
But it would also be necessary to have a listening place for the professionals who deal with extreme situations, because that is also caring for mothers: caring for the caregiver.
Q.
She is the coordinator of the Mama importa forum.
What does it consist of?
R.
It is a kind of network of mothers who expose their situation to be supported by other mothers.
Those who use this forum are women with normal concerns, like wanting to know if they are doing well or if their children are healthy.
Although they usually have the feeling of being raised in solitude, of not having enough support, or even that their way of doing things is boycotted.
There are moments when you feel overwhelmed, because motherhood is very intense.
Raising a child is very hard and it is very beautiful, both at the same time.
By raising you realize what you are really capable of.
But it is true that episodes of anxiety crises can appear.
Q.
What is it that most attracts your attention from what you read in the forum?
R.
The need that we are many times to be heard without being judged.
It is as difficult and as simple as that.
Being able to express yourself freely without anyone judging or criticizing you.
That is the only thing we need on many occasions, that they validate the difficulties we are having.
Many people all they do is vent, be heard outside their environment.
Women, mothers, we are very powerful when we take care of each other.
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