Canadian new mothers visit mental health providers more during pandemic
Posted June 7, 2021 12:59 pm.
TORONTO – A new study says mental health visits by new mothers in Ontario increased 30 per cent during the pandemic compared to previous years, with a noticeable bump occurring within the first three months after giving birth.
The study is published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
It looked at more than 137,000 postpartum mental health visits to family physicians and psychiatrists in Ontario from March through November 2020.
Dr. Simone Vigod, chief of psychiatry at Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital and co-author of the study, says isolation from COVID-19 restrictions, financial insecurities from lost jobs and health concerns all likely factored into the increase in mental health visits.
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“It’s not just that people are a little bit more stressed, but they’re actually going to the doctor saying, you know, I’m not coping. I’m anxious and depressed,” Vigod says.
Vigod says a major postpartum risk factor is lack of social support and life stress — and pandemic restrictions “essentially reduced social support for new parents and gave them more life stress.”
The researchers looked exclusively at Ontario data, but Vigod expects similar trends across the country based on broader mental health survey results from the pandemic.
