Perinatal mental health: burden, challenges and prospects

Abstract

Maternal health has traditionally focused on mortality and physical health morbidity, this approach has inspired several initiatives which significantly enhanced the health outcomes of women in child bearing age globally. More recently, the significance of mental health has become relevant to maternal health and most mental health difficulties of women occur peripartum. An understanding of this problem is valuable to the practice of obstetrics. Method: A non systematic review of the literature was undertaken to identify scholarly works on the subject which was predetermined to answer the issues related to the topic. Conclusion: The mental health problems of women in the perinatal period are huge and growing particularly, in the low and middle income countries. The burden and consequences associated with this group of disorders is borne by the mother, child and the wider society. The global effort in Providing perinatal mental health services to women in a comprehensive and integrated manner has proved difficult due to poor policy, stigma, misconceptions and lack of collaboration. Despite these challenges there is hope in the growing local and global evidence supporting the effectiveness of cheap intervention across diverse economic and social contexts. Integrating mental health into primary health care through the mhGAP, task shifting and interdisciplinary collaboration between obstetricians and mental health physicians can be an important starting point.