Women’s health and mental wellness are hot topics in United States politics and media. It seems foreign to discuss women’s health and mental wellness in government spaces, but with the recent formulation of harmful policies, such as abortion bans and black maternal death rates finally being acknowledged, it can be often depressing to be a woman or a new mom of color in our country, as we know it today. Women’s health is at risk, but more specifically black women’s physical health and mental health as it relates to childrearing is at a substantially higher risk. In this blog, I will discuss postpartum depression amongst black women and how often it is underdiagnosed, inequitable healthcare access to receive quality care, and the overall mistrust of Western medicine. 

According to Mayo Clinic, new moms experience postpartum “baby blues” after childbirth which commonly include mood swings, crying spells, anxiety, and difficulty sleeping. This stage usually starts about 2-3 days after delivery and lasts up to 2 weeks. However, some new moms experience more severe long-lasting depression which is called postpartum depression. This can start during pregnancy and last after childbirth. The symptoms of postpartum depression are more severe than the “baby blues”. The symptoms of PDD can be feelings of sadness, feelings of hopelessness, loss of energy, withdrawal from family and friends, and depressed mood. Studies suggest women of color are more than twice as likely to experience postpartum depression as white women (MedicalNewsToday, 2023). This can be due to socio-economic factors, lack of quality health care when they delivered their baby and during the pregnancy and racial discrimination. For black women, it can be extremely difficult to receive the adequate care that one needs during this vulnerable time. Furthermore, black moms are afraid to seek mental health care for their postpartum depression due to shame, feelings of embarrassment, and fear of discriminatory attitudes from healthcare providers due to racial stigma. So predictably, postpartum depression goes under-reported and underdiagnosed in women of color, but specifically black women due to external and internal factors. The lack of equitable health care plays a huge factor in this as well. Usually but certainly not always women of color have to deal with the structural stressors of our broken healthcare coverage system, such as the place of employment not providing healthcare insurance coverage. Segregation and the quality of supply of behavioral health providers in one's community can certainly add stressors. Finally, the mistrust of modern Western medicine is understandable due to its creation and historical background. Black women in the 1800s were used as props to practice by doctors in training to perfect the profession now known as obstetrics because it was believed black women did not experience pain. However, the mistrust does not stop there. In the present day, the black maternal death rates are extremely high due to some doctors' and nurses' maintaining the ideology that black women do not experience such agonizing pain. 

What can be done to support new black mothers? First, it can look like new fathers emotionally supporting their partner and mother of their child in the way they act. Secondly, support can just normalize the new mom’s feelings and sit with her in her time of need, and lastly, OBGYNs utilize more comprehensive and equitable screening tools to assess new moms and provide resources before they leave the doctor’s office in case they do want to reach out for additional support.