Mental Illness' in Mothers

             
   In The New York Times this week, an interesting article surfaced stating that women who have children are more likely to suffer from a mental illness than women who choose the option of abortion.  This was all according to Danish scientists funded by the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation which pushes for research on abortion rights. This study focused on women who either chose to give birth or abort between the years of 1995-2007. There were 365,550 Danish women involved, in which 84,620 chose to abort and 280,930 chose to go full term with their pregnancy. The study showed that women showed an increased rate of seeking psychiatric help when they had their baby.

            The study does show that women who choose termination are more likely to have “emotional problems” before they even come to the situation of keeping the baby or abortion. The article did show that mental illnesses in new mothers can definitely be caused by the increased hormones changes and stress.  This study to is eye opening to the issue of mental health illnesses in mothers.

-Angie Frazier