Clinicians at Tweddle are not surprised by a recent Murdoch Children’s Research Institute study of 1500 mothers that found 10 per cent of women reported symptoms of depression a year after the birth of their first child but this increased to 15 per cent four years after the birth. Maternal depression is more common four years after the birth of a first child than at any time in the first 12 months postpartum, according to new research by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Tweddle Psychologist Nikki Zerman said that “Tweddle plays an important role in providing support to parents with children up to school age. Often services (such as mother baby units) exclude parents once the child is 12 months. Factors such as isolation, financial concerns, expectations of what parenting would be like and relationship issues do not disappear once a child is past a certain age. We frequently see mums and dads in our service who have children at preschool age.”
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