Parents encouraged to seek support

DATA from the Gidget Foundation indicates that more than a quarter of Australian parents are unsure what mental health support is available during the perinatal period.

One in four Australian parents experience perinatal mental health symptoms but have not sought professional help and 33 per cent believe their symptoms are not significant enough to seek help.

Perinatal depression and anxiety impact more than 100,000 parents each year.

The Gidget Foundation offers up to 10 bulk billed face-to-face or telehealth psychological counselling appointments with a perinatal mental health clinician per year.

“We know that it is a period where people are undergoing really significant changes in a whole range of different spaces and one of them is often times you’ve got a reduced income,” Jess Neale, Gidget Foundation clinician said.

“It’s such a wonderful thing to be able to provide those bulk-billed sessions and that specialist level of perinatal support.

“One of the most important things is timely intervention.”

Perinatal mental health week was held from Sunday 23 to Saturday 29 November, and this year’s theme, What You Need, When You Need It, was about the importance of accessing support.

Lucas-based mother of twins Nilu Karunaratne experienced perinatal anxiety and depression.

She said it was challenging to manage having twin babies and blood transfusions for her auto immune disorder Graves’ disease under regional health support constraints.

“I am originally from Sri Lanka and in 2016 me and my husband came to Australia,” she said.

“In 2019 we found out that I was pregnant and having twins… my entire pregnancy was a very positive, very smooth pregnancy.

“I remember about one month after giving birth everything became upside down, sleep became elusive, every minor incident caused anger within me, tears flowed without any reason.”

Ms Karunaratne said everyone’s experience will be different, but her psychologist encouraged her to continue hobbies she loved such as Pilates and yoga, to do meditation, to have a daytime nap without her children, and have one meaningful conversation with a positive person each day.

“I came from Sri Lanka, a south Asian background, so I had extreme cultural barriers. Due to this I never wanted to share my feelings,” she said.

“Luckily my husband is a general practitioner, so he recognised the seriousness of my condition and referred me to a psychologist.

“Initially I thought that seeking help is a weakness but now I know seeking help is a strength. Professional help is necessary for the path to recovery.”

For more information visit gidgetfoundation.org.au or call 1300 851 758.