“ What do you mean you’re depressed? But you have everything to be happy, you are pregnant! » The perinatal period will always be surrounded by happiness: this received idea, a romantic vision, can discourage future mothers from verbalizing their possible discomfort. This self-censorship is far from being a detail. Suicide represents the main cause of maternal mortality in the year following childbirth, according to a recent report by Inserm and Public Health France (45 suicides of the 272 deaths registered between 2016 and 2018). “A large part of these deaths could be avoided if prevention were further developed. »says Lucie Joly, 37 years old, a psychiatrist at the Saint-Antoine hospital (AP-HP, Sorbonne University), specialized in women’s health, particularly during pregnancy and the postpartum period.
When she assumed her position as head of perinatal psychiatry in 2016, the young doctor observed that the medical profession pays special attention to the newborn, but that the psychological health of mothers is often neglected, although they regularly express their distress during consultations. The situation has become somewhat more balanced since then, but even today, “Very few studies analyze the brains of mothers and their great vulnerability during this period. How to understand maternal depression, imaginary pregnancies, ghost baby syndrome, pregnancy denial? »asks Lucie Joly, who combines her experience with that of Hugo Bottemanne, 33 years old, a neuroscience researcher and also a psychiatrist at the Bicêtre hospital (AP-HP, Paris-Saclay University). Together they write scientific articles and books for the general public: In the brains of mothers (Editions du Rocher, 2022) and Depression in women (Editions du Rocher, 216 pages, 17.90 euros). Lucie Joly also trains midwives and nurses to identify mental disorders and works, with the psychiatry team at the Saint-Antoine hospital, to create a unit dedicated to women’s mental health.
This disaster zone − funding problems, job cuts, exhausted caregivers, endless consultation times, degraded care − also suffers from preconceived ideas about psychological disorders: “Psychologists are for crazy people”, “Depressives are mild chronicles”, “Schizophrenics, criminals ”…How many people? Do they resist entering the doors of a psychologist because “it won’t be any use”? How many medical students turn their backs on this discipline, considered “the bottom of the basket” when choosing a career? One more obstacle at a time when the growing lack of psychiatrists and the increasing care needs of the population, adults but also children and adolescents, collide, especially since Covid. In its annual review of the mental health roadmap for 2023, the Ministry of Health and Access to Healthcare recalls that mental disorders affect almost 13 million French people, or one in five people.
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