Suicide among pregnant women and mothers immediately after childbirth takes a complex and many-sided form, and it bears serious consequences for the health of the mothers and their infants. In other recent and previous research and studies, according to Patel et al. (2014), the suicide of the mother emerged as another leading cause of the mortality of mothers, overwhelmingly ignored, with rampant psychotic disorders in most developed countries. The general causes to blame for a higher suicidal risk include widespread initiators of the likelihood of committing suicide during the perinatal period, for instance, previous mental illnesses, drug abuse, social prejudice, non-existent reproductive rights, and lack of access to mental health. Factors associated with maternal suicides are majorly linked with mental health and include determinant factors that act as stimulants of such conditions. This, therefore, forms a foundation in the ensuring of strategies or interventions in the desire that women of child-bearing age maintain good mental health.
First of all, mothers with a personal background of psychiatric disorders, including psychotic bipolarity, are connected with the most significant risk of suicidal behaviors in this critical period (Patel et al., 2014). Moreover, apart from the psycho-somatic transformation an expectant mother undergoes during gestation, the psychological stress that comes with labor and childbearing may aggravate the mental health issues (Patel et al., 2014). Being a woman is not an easy task. The hormonal changes, the lack of harmony during such changes, and the social pressures are all factors that can contribute to an increase in the number of psychiatric disorders. Moreover, there is a higher risk of suicidal ideas and failure among this group.
Abuse of substances reappears as the third most vulnerable reason for suicides in females. Along with alcohol and drug addictions, people also experience poor cognitive functions and aggravation of mental health problems, together with impulsivity and thus can increase the tendency of suicidal behaviors (Takeda et al., 2022). The insufficiency of support systems and the stigma pertaining to substance abuse worsen the problems experienced by pregnant and postpartum women dealing with addiction. This stresses the necessity for an integrated intervention approach that displays a holistic view and overlooks mental health and substance use disorders.
Furthermore, being in a situation where you unexpectedly find out you are pregnant and where you have no rights and cannot get a safe abortion due to unavailability or restrictions of contraception is a very triggering factor that can cause the level of hopelessness and despair to rise particularly in the communities that contraception is unavailable (Takeda et al., 2022). Adolescents who might be ill-equipped to handle reproductive decisions due to limited resources and freedoms for independent navigation of choices are also highly vulnerable to the debilitating mental health consequences of unwanted pregnancy. The inadequacy of the available social networks and their fear of public judgment make the psychological discomfort of the said women even worse, putting them at a greater risk of thinking of suicide and hazardous behavior.
In addition, women who are on the margin or generally suffer from the implications of social stigma, such as those who are young, unemployed or socially rejected, have specific stressors and barriers to mental health care (Chin et al., 2022). Social marginalization, worsened by discriminatory views and shortcomings in the healthcare infrastructure, contributes to the feelings of being like an outcast. This way, the patients fall into deep depression and do not feel strong ever again to give up (Chin et al., 2022). Nowadays, women who comply with society’s prominent views on motherhood and respect for families end up with far heavier shoulder lines. Here, this is specifically applicable for communities that regard gender’s role as not being so flexible a process as a very rigidly modulated one. The solution for this complicated drama is actually not a sectional approach alone; however, it needs to be integrated with a holistic approach that advocates for mental health support, reproductive rights and social construct with the relevant programs that help to facilitate the main building blocks of social support and dismantle the barriers which may have made good care very hard.
In conclusion, these suicides among pregnant and new mothers are attributable to a range of factors and, therefore, impose varying needs, yet the necessary measures are often irresistible. We should formulate strategies that include the individual as well as the system level of approaches to allow the elimination of the risks of hazards and provide the needed help to marginalized groups. Blending the discipline of biological, psychological, and social determinants steers to the formation of cooperative social systems that focus on the resilience of the future mother and strengthen the population.
References
Chin, K., Wendt, A., Bennett, I. M., & Bhat, A. (2022). Suicide and Maternal Mortality. Current Psychiatry Reports, 24(4), 239–275. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8976222/
Patel, V., Minas, H., Cohen, A., & Prince, M. J. (2014). Global Mental Health: Principles and Practice. Oxford University Press.
Takeda, J., Takeda, S., & Hikiji, W. (2022). Recent Trends in Maternal and Postpartum Suicide and Countermeasures. JMA journal, 5(2), 268–269. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9090555/
write