Postpartum depression costs employers: How Learning Motherhood can help

I remember the feeling. The feeling that somehow I failed, somehow I failed our family, my baby, and my partner. I was on parental leave, yet I was not enjoying any of it. Anxiety was so intense all I could think of was the reality that this leave would end. I was returning to something foreign to me, yet I had devoted 13 years to. I felt lost, confused, and completely alone. The joy of this time seemed like a fairy tale of all the should's I had romanticized but was unable to feel or see. The world was closing in, and so was I. Now I realize I'm not alone. One and seven women experience postpartum depression. Women return to work too soon as they silently are in distress. Silently trying to show up and be a person that is “whole,” but they are far from it. The days and nights bleed together with tired and red eyes left from the tears that don't make any sense at the moment. Yet they power through the heaviness that consumes the mind and body with what is left to give each work hour as the struggles of the day get larger and larger.

We often talk about the physical recovery when referring to parental leave but not as often about the mental health of parents navigating the transition of a new baby. According to a study by PLOS shared in Harvard TH CHAN School of Public Health postpartum women reported high levels of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 6,894 participants 31% had elevated levels of anxiety/depression and 43% had post traumatic stress due to the pandemic. Coupled by no national paid leave program in the US there is most likely employees returning to work in less than idea mental health conditions.

It is gut-wrenching to see a mother experiencing this, and yet the workplace passes through this life-changing event as if nothing has happened. We can't go on this way. We can't go on not supporting our parents and not providing the resources to acknowledge this well-documented change that happens when women become mothers and men become fathers. To believe that life does not impact work is a naive attempt not to realize that your employees are human. Your employees are valuable, and to grow, you must grow with them.

Don't be okay with the employee silently struggling. Invest in them, recognize the change, celebrate the new and all that it brings. At the same time let’s not be naive, one HR employee can not take on the responsibilities of what this requires to show up differently for parents on parental leave. Working with Learning Motherhood will provide that bridge between HR and the employee.  Check out our resources, services, and digital products to make change happen this year for your employee, for you, and the greater good of your organization.