Commonly attributed to terms like ‘nazr’ or ‘black magic’, which relate to an evil force in Asian culture, is the response given to women in the South Asian community that are dealing with maternal mental health issues.
This week marks the weeklong campaign of raising maternal mental health awareness.
UK charity for mental health ‘Mind’, lists the common symptoms, that can be experienced while pregnant or after having a baby as anxiety, OCD, postpartum psychosis, and postpartum PTSD.
Having recently given birth to her fourth child, 39-year-old financial services advisor Naila Khawaja talks about miscarriage, myths, and stigma around perinatal mental health within the South Asian culture.
“I would get into trouble for carrying my firstborn child on my side, whilst being pregnant.
“People would tell me that I was squashing the baby I was carrying, but when I asked my midwife, she said it doesn’t affect the baby at all.”
In the South Asian community, difficulties in pregnancies are often considered ‘nazr’ or bad omen, though Naila argues “It isn’t nazr it’s just how our bodies work and if there are underlying health issues, people need to look at that, instead of saying you’ve got nazr from being pregnant.”
Having sought out counselling at work, the mum of four told Asian Sunday how her marriage suffered, as she couldn’t come to terms with her miscarriage.
“It got to a point where my marriage became about when I was ovulating, so I could get pregnant again.
“But when I gave birth to my third child, after trying for three years, because of all the complications during childbirth, like having a bladder burst through my caesarean, I ended up going through postnatal depression and I began resenting my baby for it.”
The expectation of having a natural birth can also cause a pregnant woman to suffer from perinatal mental health issues.
The 39-year-old also shared how the Asian community have “unrealistic” expectations of naturally birthing a child and discouraging caesareans, having experienced this through all her pregnancies being emergency c-sections.
A Birmingham-based South Asian motherhood and lifestyle blogger is also raising awareness of maternal mental health, through her own experiences of symptoms and superstitious comments.
In an interview with Asian Sunday, Munveer Lyall says she was told to “stay away from things to do with a death such as funerals.
“There is an expectation in our family that new mums should stay home for 5 weeks after birth.
“While I understand that this can help speed up the recovery, I think after 2-3 weeks, I would have benefitted more from going out and about and feeling part of society and getting back to normal slowly.”
The motherhood and lifestyle blogger also said, “Within the South Asian community, there are often connotations of shame, embarrassment, and even weakness associated with speaking about your mental health struggles.”
Also normalising postpartum depression are Bollywood stars Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kalki Kolchin.
The two Indian actresses have had their own books – ‘The Elephant in the Womb’ and ‘The Ultimate Manual for Mom-to-Be’ published, which give their accounts of labour, breastfeeding, and postpartum depression.
Experienced applied health researcher for Born in Bradford, Rosie McEachan states in a 2019 report that “Pakistani women are more at risk of mental ill-health but are half as likely to have a diagnosis recorded with their GP than White British women in the three years after childbirth (10% vs. 20%).”
Surrounding these issues, Asian Sunday spoke to experts in the field of maternal mental health, in overcoming this stigma.
“We have spoken with women from South Asian backgrounds and healthcare professionals and voluntary organizations working with women, and we know that there are lots of barriers for women having their perinatal mental health issues identified and treated,” says Dr Josie Dickerson, Director of the research program ‘Born in Bradford’.
Directors of the internationally recognised programme, suggest this is due to some women not having their “symptoms picked up by health professionals because of misunderstandings through the use of interpreters or a lack of cultural humility and awareness in the understanding of symptoms.”
A lack of awareness and stigmatisation of perinatal mental health may be the reason why South Asian women do not come forward to report such symptoms, despite them being at a higher risk.
If you are dealing with issues around perinatal mental health, you should always consult your doctor in the first instance.
