An influential government panel made new recommendations for expecting and new mothers struggling with mental illness.
The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force group is behind the recommendation, which calls for a screening to be used to diagnose depression in all adults, but also women who could be suffering from postpartum.
Mother Emily Barnes knows the feelings of postpartum depression.
"It had gone undiagnosed for all these years and I didn't understand,” she said.
Barnes suffered unknowingly for more than five years. “All of the sudden I was having panic attacks and I was in hysterical tears."
Dr. Rabiya Suleman, an OBGYN at the Overland Park Regional Medical Center, said about one in every eight patients suffers from postpartum.
“We screen them immediately after they have the baby and we screen them in our office as specialists of women's care right when they come in for their postpartum visit,” Suleman explained.
Barnes agrees the recommendation is necessary. "The recommendation is absolutely a first step. It has to happen that women have the ability to talk openly and honestly and it has to happen early and often."
Barnes is now a resource for other mothers who suffer from postpartum. She is the secretary of the Pregnancy and Postpartum Resource Center. Her goal is to help the many other women out there who are feeling the pain and guilt she once felt.
“The one in seven, one in eight number, that's the most accurate we can get based on who we can actually get to. I think the number is actually higher because of women like me who lived in silence. Because maybe they were afraid if they told somebody the things they were feeling their child would be taken away,” Barnes said.
For more information on PPRC, visit the website at www.kansasppd.org or call 913-677-1300.
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Lexi Sutter can be reached at alexandra.sutter@kshb.com.
