'Super mums' struggle with reality
Many new mothers are anxious and depressed because of pressure to be "super mums", according to clinical and forensic psychologist Kirstin Bouse.
She is seeing more "book mums" - educated women who take care of themselves during pregnancy but flounder when they become a parent.
Ms Bouse says pregnancy and motherhood have become risky times for depression and anxiety.
Many women are focusing on pretty nurseries, finding out their baby's sex and birth plans but are ill-equipped once their child arrives.
The 41-year-old mother of four children aged from seven to 14 is launching a program for pregnant women, The Mothers Group, to prepare them for the reality of motherhood.
"Women who are planning a family tend to focus on getting pregnant and their birth plan, often neglecting their psychological wellbeing," she said.
"No one really talks to them about what their expectations are of motherhood.
"It's even more pronounced if they know the baby's gender because they start to create a picture of the baby and that pushes them down a certain mindset."
Ms Bouse said many people believed mothering was instinctive and everything "came together" when the baby arrived, but this was not the case for many women. Some imagined a closeness they might not experience when their child arrived and that left them riddled with guilt.
If left untreated, about half of women who had anxiety and 70 per cent who had depression before the birth continued to have symptoms in the early years of their child's life.
Some GPs were not geared to deal with struggling new mums and many women no longer visited child-health nurses.
Women often had higher expectations of themselves in their mothering than generations before them. "They have firm expectations of how it should be - that they've to have a good sleeper and breastfeed," Ms Bouse said.
"We all read more, and while information is a wonderful thing, it can create more confusion and a sense of not measuring up and that can lead to depression."
For parenting help, visit the Life Resolutions Morley website.
