This could be mainly on attributed to the fact that most women suffering from maternal depression hesitate to share their grievances with their health care providers or on account of lack of adequate knowledge regarding the same (Castle et al., 2006).
However, over the past decade the awareness and significance of addressing such mental health concerns of women has risen substantially, resulting in positive approaches developed by care givers to support and offer effective treatment to such women. This paper attempts to discuss the various issues related to communication between physicians or primary care givers and their patients i.e. women suffering from maternal depression, discuss theories related to communication patterns, assess the prescription of antidepressants and advice related to breast feeding given by the physicians to the women with maternal depression and lastly suggest ways in which the communication channels can be smoothened and improved to ensure optimum provision of health care to such women.
The term maternal depression, in its most basic form refers to a range of depressive conditions of women prior to, during or post pregnancies. These depressive conditions include prenatal depression, postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. Such mental health setbacks in the absence of timely treatment and care may result in serious deterioration of the womens mental health posing substantial threat to their lives as well as to those of their child (Shaw et al., 2009).
Women play a central role in parenting and hence are more responsible for facilitating and coordinating conversations with their physicians regarding their personal health issues. They are hence far more likely to communicate with their physicians as compared to their family members. T