a “Systematic maintenance around the fifth week after childbirth” will be introduced at the beginning of 2022 to identify post-partum depression, which would affect between 15% and 30% of mothers, declared Tuesday, September 28 the Secretary of State for Children, Adrien Taquet, during the Mental health and psychiatry foundations. “For women at risk, it will be followed by a second interview around the twelfth week”, added Mr. Taquet.
This interview will be carried out by health professionals: attending physicians or midwives, who will have been made aware of the identification of post-partum depression, the Secretary of State for Children told Agence France-Presse (AFP). . If signs of depression are detected, the parent may be referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist.
“One hundred thousand women a year suffer from postpartum depression – 15%, I think that’s the commonly accepted figure. In a recent survey, 30% of mothers and 18% of fathers say they have experienced a depressive episode ”, continued Mr. Taquet.
But only 5% of mothers say they have been diagnosed by a specialist and 78% of parents had never heard of postpartum depression during medical appointments, according to the survey mentioned by Mr. Taquet and carried out in August 2021 by OpinionWay for the telemedicine company Qare.
Support families
Within the framework of “first 1000 days” plan, launched in 2019 to support families during this crucial period for the child and the creation of solid bonds of attachment with parents, several measures have been put in place, including a “first 1000 days” application which provides information to parents or future parents.
A call for projects was launched with 10 million euros for “Strengthen the offer in perinatal psychiatry” in “Opening five to ten new joint parent-baby care units and creating fifteen to twenty new mobile teams”, said Mr. Taquet.
“Since my appointment two and a half years ago, there has not been a trip in which the actors do not talk to me about child psychiatry that must be reinforced. Not a single trip where no one told me about the 6 to 18 month wait in the CMPs [centres médico-psychologiques] infanto-juveniles’, said the Secretary of State, judging that “Cannot be satisfied” of these deadlines, nor “The impossibility of emergency hospitalization of adolescents for lack of space”. “Emergency calls for mood disorders among those under 15 increased by 40% at the end of 2020 compared to what was observed during the same period in 2018 and 2019”, he said.