Searching For The Root: Does Research Language Make It Harder For Professionals To Identify Perinatal Mental Health Disorders?

For a long time, I often wondered why, when I sat across from a medical or mental health professional, the words that came out of my mouth seemed to hold less weight to them compared to the soul crushing weight I could feel. No matter how I worded it, my struggles weren't taken as seriously as I needed to be taken. Then I started reading research papers.

As a writer, I can visualise written words well. The letters leave the page or screen and morph into a movie in my mind. Yet, when I read research papers, only one was able to enter my mind and show itself in a different way. It was a paper on former young carers and their words were used.

Shortly after I had names to explain what I was experiencing during my postpartum, my research on them began. It was then that I realised why I wasn't able to visualise what was being expressed. The language they used wasn't the language spoken or written to them when they were collecting data. The paper focused on the mental health of mums who found themselves in NICU with their baby/babies, and the wording that made the metaphorical light bulb above my head shine bright, was "... feel a loss of ownership." This made my eyebrows arch in confusion and my head tilt as if even my body was going "Huh?"

As a former NICU mum, "Excuse you?" left my mouth as I knew that no mum they had spoken to was expressing that they felt like they had lost ownership of their baby/babies. What they would have been expressing is a loss in maternal agency.

For all you lucky mums out there, who have never stepped foot in a NICU, those of us who have, and have because it was our baby/babies that were in there, we had to ask to do basic and normal motherly things. We have to ask to hold our baby/babies, to change their nappy (diaper for any US English speakers reading this), to comfort them, feed them, put clothes on them, and bathe them. What every other mum gets to do freely, we have to ask. That is why we feel/felt like we had lost maternal agency. We are/were mums who have/had to ask for permission.

From then on, I started to notice that the language used wouldn't reflect the answers that were likely given. Then it made me wonder, if medical professionals and mental health professionals read research papers (As they are meant as they made an oath to continue studying as new findings appear every day.), would they be able to accurately identify severe mental health struggles based on words alone?

We already know that our appearance is dissected when we express mental health struggles and that many professionals believe if you look put together, you can't be struggling mentally, or physically. So, our words have a lot of pressure already put on them simply because we don't want to go out in public looking like we've never seen a hairbrush, washing machine, or bath/shower before.

Once the questions started flowing, another one that I felt was important popped up. All of us express ourselves differently and use different words to express ourselves. Where we live or were brought up has an influence on the words we use, education also an influence, as does how we were taught to express ourselves within our family/home life. For those who were brought up in abusive homes and weren't able to express themselves, their vocabulary would be limited in terms of how they were feeling. For those who are in a country where they have speak a second or third language, and haven't learned some key words that would stand out to professionals, they would also be limited in how they are able to express themselves verbally.

Taking those, and many more scenarios, into consideration, I realised that professionals would have to try and interpret what is said to them about mental health, in hundreds if not thousands of different ways. I suspect that would make it harder for them to morph research language into layman's language. So, it is no wonder why women who had experienced postpartum psychosis were misdiagnosed with anxiety or OCD. It is also no wonder why women who are suicidal are refused support from Perinatal Mental Health Community Teams, as the questionnaires postpartum women, who are exhausted and can barely think beyond their baby's routine, use research language.

In each scenario that I went through in my head, research language was high on the list of possible reasons as to why women aren't getting the support they need, and not just during the postpartum stage, the pregnancy stage too.

I want to make sure that it is clear that what I have written is merely my thoughts. I haven't conducted any research to see if this is a strong contender for being the root cause of why women aren't getting the right support and treatment. Some of you may know that I will begin my Master's Degree in Psychology (Conversion) in a couple of weeks, that my focus, where possible, will be on perinatal mental health, and that in order to complete my Masters, I need to write a dissertation. The question that led to days of creating scenarios and this post, is on my list of possible dissertation topics.

I may not know if research language IS a strong contender for being the root of the issues within perinatal mental health support, but I do know that it is a strong contender for being my dissertation. The way I see it is if we find the dying root, pull it out and put a healthier one in its place, then positive results will soon follow.

Now, I also want to make it clear that I know there are several factors that contribute to the lack of support. Staff shortages and government funding are two of them. However, as I studied economics and politics during my BA (HONS) degree in Business Management, I also know that funding is partly based on demand. If research language is the cause of women not being diagnosed or given a wrong diagnosis, then the real demand remains unknown. If it is the cause and action is taken which leads to more women being accurately diagnosed, requests for support are put in, and the need for support is accurately identified, then the true demand will become known.

If you have read this and understood what my late night rambles are trying to say, please leave a comment and share your opinion. Do you think research language plays a role in the lack of mental health support during the perinatal period? And if so, how much of a role do you feel it plays? If not, why do you think it doesn't play a role and what do you think could be the root?

Author note; The topic of this blog post has been on my mind for several weeks now, however, I am writing this at 11:50 pm while also being on high alert as my son just appears and gives me a heart attack when he should be sleeping. So, the flow, especially at the end, may be terrible. I will edit this when I have time one morning or I'll get my husband to edit it on his days off.

Author's second note: I have been thinking that it may be a good idea for me to write blog posts about what I am considering as my dissertation topic. I have many ideas and I feel that writing about them will help me see where I hold too much bias, where I need to learn more about prior to collecting data, and what pulls out a strong emotional reaction from me. I tend to work better when my emotions are involved as it acts as motivation.