Happy Holidays everyone!
I wanted to discuss a topic I personally and professionally am interested in when it comes to prenatal care. As a woman that has a baby back in 2016, I found it difficult to maintain a balance between personal, professional, and home life being pregnant. I had so many stressors coming at one time that I did not know how to handle it. Being a young mother of 23 at the time as well, I was not fully aware of how much external stressors have the ability to harm an unborn child. Because of this, advocacy for prenatal care and mental health became a core of my work both domestically and internationally.
Last I wrote in this blog, I did many research projects concerning issues with Early-Childhood care and the field itself. What I did not focus on, however, was the importance of Prenatal care and mental health. We speak about programs such as Woman Infants and Children (WIC),s food programs, and courses through local, state, and federal programs to teach mothers how to bond and create healthy environments for baby. But we often don't discuss the mother and her well-being.
Since the creation of gender roles, a woman was always seemed as the nurturer and cargiver. A young lady is socially breed to idolize marriage, home, and family as top priority before her own aspirations and goals. While we are changing the narrative with this newer generation and the fluidity of gender and gender roles, woman and the symbolism of womanhood has remained the same. A girl goes from being a daughter, to a wife, to a mother. She is never just herself (Welter, 1973).
This narrative can hold detrimental effects on her and the children she cares for because we aren't teaching women to be mindful of their mental health and self-care. It's this social understanding that a woman who chooses to not marry and/or have children is considered "selfish" while the mere thought of not wanting kids, regretting having children, or putting their needs before their children's at times is shunned to social pariah status (Park, 2002). Holding women accountable for their own self-care and mental health has proven to be a double-edged sword.
I am a huge advocate for encouraging mothers to be "selfish". Yes, a mother should always care and tend to her child but I am a proponent of the dangers of ALWAYS putting your child's needs before your own. A woman's life is not centered around her child contrary to social standards. A mother has the right to be able to take time to herself and care about her needs versus her child occasionally. Stress built up within a mother can trickle down into her relationship with that child and ultimately cause emotional damage that cannot be undone. Pregnant mothers have it harder because the fetus feels and experiences everything the mother does. Stress, trauma, and lack of emotional care leads to premature delivery, high blood pressure for mother and baby, severed placenta, disfigured brain development,a possible fatality for both (Mulder, et. Al, 2011).
It's highly unhealthy to continue this narrative that a mother's life is no longer her own with her child. Her life is now shared. Her attention and care is now on two people versus one. However it should be considered a partnership as opposed to a monarchy or dictatorship. Mothers need time and space to regulate their emotions, decompress, and have opportunities to be in their own space. This allows mothers the opportunity to reflect and re-energize themselves in order to have the mental space and opportunity to handle external stressors and the needs/wants of their child.
Resources:
Mulder, E. J., De Medina, P. R., Huizink, A. C., Van den Bergh, B. R., Buitelaar, J. K., & Visser, G. H. (2002). Prenatal maternal stress: effects on pregnancy and the (unborn) child. Early human development, 70(1-2), 3-14.
Park, K. (2002). Stigma management among the voluntarily childless. Sociological perspectives, 45(1), 21-45.
Welter, B. (1973). The cult of true womanhood: 1820-1860. na.
