Did you know that up to 10% of pregnant women in Australia suffer from depression in pregnancy?

I read this article late last year from the BBC and felt just awful. It explored the incidences of depression in both pregnant women and post-natal new mums. And more upsetting was the reluctance to speak up about it. More than 22% of these women in Britain suffering depression did not talk about their feelings and concerns honestly with their GP or obstetrician.

We are often reminded of the impact of having a baby and it is well written about in mother and parenting publications. The incidence of post-natal depression is spoken of openly. However, it is not often that you hear about the same terrible times had by some mums-to-be when still carrying their baby. This is called ante-natal depression.

This has really encouraged me to read up more and share with you some further reading.

So what defines ante-natal (or post-natal) depression? Because, as you may be aware, mood swings, anxieties and feelings of sadness are all a part of the most normal of pregnancies and early months of motherhood. It is however, not considered normal if these feelings (and many more – a very long list) become over whelming and last for more than 2 weeks. This is enough to interfere with your normal functioning life.

If this is you, please share your feelings – with your partner, friends, doctor or even online support groups. I hope you can find the time to read a little more. The PANDA site in particular had the most wonderful PDF handouts to download, of which I have linked one below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20265786

http://www.panda.org.au/

Women’s Health in our CBD branch.

Did you know that bladder control problems or incontinence is as common as 1 in every 3 women? Perhaps you are not aware, but did you know that there are women’s health physiotherapists that can help? You don’t have to put up with it!

Heba at our CBD branch is trained as a women’s health specialist physiotherapist. She is specially trained in the assessment and management of poor bladder control and other pelvic floor problems. These include:

- Urinary and bowel incontinence

- Pelvic floor muscle retraining and strengthening after birth

- Painful or altered sexual function

- Pelvic Pain, and

- Pelvic Floor rehabilitation after pelvic surgery, such as for vaginal prolapse.

She is sensitive and fantastic with assessment, advice and guidance with treatment in these issues.

After all, incontinence and other pelvic floor problems are not normal for women after child birth or as we become older. With the right treatment, most of these issues can be rectified.

You don’t need a referral and sessions attract generous health fund rebates.

Contact our CBD branch on 9264 0077.

Nobody wants pain, but without it, we wouldn’t survive for long. Its purpose is to protect us from danger by changing our behaviour. An example of this is telling us to quickly take our hand off the hot stovetop so we don’t get burnt, or making us limp when we sprain an ankle, so we can heal. Pain has evolved over millions of years to keep us alive.

So what is pain, really?

The pain experience is produced by your brain, in response to a perceived danger. For instance, if you accidentally put your hand on the hot stovetop, your brain might create pain to make you quickly remove your hand (and remember not to do it again!). The pain experience is part of the brain’s decision-making process about what threatens us, and pain is nothing more than one of the body’s many protection mechanisms. The brain is able to weigh up (in milliseconds) all information it receives about that injury, at that time and in that place. From all of this information, the brain decides if and when we are to feel pain.

Have you ever heard the shark attack survivor’s stories about not feeling any pain at the time of the attack? This is because the brain perceives that drowning is a bigger threat to their survival (at that time and place) than the bite, so it delays the pain to allow the swim to shore. It is not until this drowning threat is removed that the extreme levels of pain from the injuries sustained may become noticeable. This is all a part of the body’s ‘flight or fight’ protective systems that many of you would know about.

These types of amazing pain stories are also many in war-time tales when there is always the more immediate threat of death. Doesn’t it make sense for the body in these scenarios to delay the pain response so that soldiers can remove themselves from the more pressing dangers such as incoming fire and death?

On the flip-side, there are occasions when the brain perceives a threat that isn’t real and produces pain anyway. An example is phantom limb pain. This is where an amputee feels pain in an arm or leg that doesn’t even exist!

Do these short examples start to make you think differently about pain?

Can you think of any other examples where pain felt by a person, or yourself, may not make sense with respect to the injury present?

Perhaps even more amazing, just knowing and accepting that the pain experience is produced by your brain will actually reduce your pain! We’ve found that the more you understand about how pain is produced, the better your brain becomes at assessing which threats are serious and which aren’t…….and the less threat, the less pain produced!

Remember that understanding pain reduces pain.