Addressing war stresses
I’ve been working in the maternal mental health field for more than 25 years, providing psychiatric care to people who are pregnant and in the postpartum period.
I help patients manage depression, anxiety and other illnesses. I also assist them with issues like fetal loss, or miscarriage, or fertility problems.
Recently, I met new mothers in Poland who fled from Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. The circumstances they experienced were daunting.
In Ukraine, the biggest issue prospective parents face currently is the stress of the war. Women give birth under bombardment, or in bomb shelters. They are trying to protect their newborns in situations where it’s very difficult to find a safe place. It adds a terrible level of trauma to the birth process.
Mental distress greatly affects pregnant people. It also has an impact on the infants once they are born.
For example, maternal mental health has a strong influence on fetal and infant neurodevelopment. Stress can cause epigenetic changes that may predispose children to future medical and psychiatric disorders.
It’s important to emphasize maternal mental well-being to clinicians. That way, health care providers can recognize when a woman is struggling or in distress, and they can offer appropriate care and support.
Myroslava Romach (MSc ’79, MD ’84, PGME ’89) is a professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine’s Departments of Psychiatry and Surgery, and co-director of the Hospital for Sick Children’s Ukraine Paediatric Fellowship Program.