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Long kept silent and trivialized, the postpartum period nevertheless seems like an electric shock to many new mothers. Illana Weizman, feminist author who has just published a testimony in the collection “Mothers without filters”, tells us about this mother’s word necessary today which, fortunately, is becoming stronger and stronger.
For the first time in 2022, the national perinatal survey gave a concrete figure on the mental health of postpartum French women. More than 16% of women are affected by depression. 80% would experience a baby blues. And all of them face a huge life change. A subject exposed differently by 6 authors in Mothers without filter, a new feminist book on postpartum published by Solar editions. Illana Weizman, sociologist and participant in this collection answered Doctissimo’s questions.
While the postpartum has always existed, speech is finally free, but why so late?
Ilana Weizman: In fact, this word has been around for a long time! We have articles dating from the 1960s and 1970s, on lochia, depression… But this word was not heard. We could talk more about openness than freedom of speech. Women talk, but we don’t listen to them, it’s a recurring problem in everything that affects their bodies. However, since 2017-2018, in fact, more and more projects (podcasts, books, etc.) finally talk about maternal difficulties. The hashtag #monpostpartum (launched with 2 other activists) in 2020 shone a spotlight on the issue. I think there’s an undeniable after #metoo too, which paved the way for other feminist topics on the body. We speak today to reclaim our bodily experience, including motherhood, pregnancy, and postpartum.
Does talking more about the postpartum advance its care?
You have to be careful not to go too fast. It is not because we approach the post partum and depression more, that things are going better. Mores are slowly changing, and health policy too. For example, we can talk about second parent leave (increased from 14 to 28 days in 2021), which is supposed to represent an important lever in the distribution of the burden of parenthood. Emmanuel Macron has imposed 7 mandatory days for fathers. But beyond that, as long as it’s not the norm, companies can put pressure on it. As long as there is no mandatory policy like in the Nordic countries, for leave, reimbursed at the same rate for the second parent, it cannot change. The word is a good thing, but must be followed by concrete measures in terms of health policies, but also economic, we are not there at all.
NO to diets, YES to WW!
Does the multiplication of voices have an effect on the mental health of mothers?
Yes, the fight is not over but, as such, putting words on depression is essential. I lived it, I experienced postpartum depression for a year and a half, and talking about it made me realize: I was not alone, nor crazy, nor weak, when I had this impression that everyone succeeded except me. But hearing that others are experiencing difficulties, that motherhood is not easy, allows us to see that we are not suffering from an individual failure, but a collective one: we are put in an untenable situation, in a role carved out far too broadly. . While we are coming out of childbirth, our body is recovering, we should have time to take care of ourselves, we must quickly take care of a little being who asks for everything. It is urgent that parenthood be better distributed.