For many first-time single mothers, the transition into motherhood is marked by weariness, frustration, and emotional turbulence.
Loss of control and mental discomfort damages the mother and affects the newborn, leading to poor mother-infant bonding. Researchers indicate that postpartum depression is highest among first-time single mothers, especially if the pregnancy was unplanned.
Postpartum depression connotes depressive feelings occurring after the birth of a child. It affects more than just the mother.
The first child brings hormonal, physical, emotional, economic, and social changes. These changes devastate new mothers whose husbands or partners are absent, who have unplanned children, and whose pregnancies were rejected by the family or partners.
First-time single mothers suffering from postpartum depression receive less attention and care than those in their prenatal phase. Screening for depression alone may not be enough.
According to WHO standards, if the mother and infant are discharged from the hospital sooner than 48 hours after birth, they should be evaluated by a certified expert within 24-48 hours.
Women are discharged, but the mother is rarely visited by a healthcare provider, leaving her to deal with little professional help at a critical moment of transition.
These women endure emotional highs and lows, frequent sobbing, exhaustion, guilt, worry, and may struggle to care for their infant. They withdraw their connections to the baby, compromising their mental health.
Holistic care is essential in caring for first-time single mothers. Physical health, values and beliefs, relationships, emotional well-being, and spirituality impact pregnancy, delivery, and parenting.
These mothers require the greatest social and health support they can get. They need more informal help from peers and family members, individualized care, enhanced professional care by maternal nurses, and comfort and compassionate treatment.
They need informal support from peers who can at least somewhat familiarize and comprehend what they may be experiencing, so they may start to feel okay within the new phase of motherhood.
