Daily Times

Sir: Childbirth causes severe hormonal changes in the mother’s body. Often, this can become a cause of postpartum depression. Mothers suffering from postpartum depression do not only experience hopelessness and severe mental anguish, they are also unable to bond with their child. Unaware of this condition, family members, especially in-laws, criticise the mother instead of giving her the emotional support she needs.

Like all illnesses, postpartum depression is also curable. But for this to happen, first we must recognise it as a medical condition and contact a doctor for help, just as we would for a disease like diabetes or blood pressure.

Therefore, I wrote this letter to create awareness among people, so that they can understand what new mothers go through, and help her instead of criticising.

Laiba Khan

Karachi

Published in Daily Times, June 25^th 2018.