Loneliness is a key factor in why some pregnant women and new mothers feel depressed, researchers have found. Experts studied existing research on more than 500 women and found that feeling lonely contributed to depression around the time of pregnancy and the first few months with a new baby.
Causes of loneliness included women feeling emotionally disconnected, not receiving enough support or imposing self-isolation because of how they were feeling. Many women feared being judged as a “bad mother”, while others were worried about how others would perceive them if they confessed they were struggling.
Many women told of a sudden sense of emotional disconnection after birth – from their previous lives before pregnancy, from other mothers and from the baby. Others reported a mismatch between how much support they thought they would get from partners, family and wider community, and how much they actually got.
