Why so little is done to help new mums cope
为什么新手妈妈获得的帮助这么少
After childbirth many women suffer mental-health problems. Different women struggle with different things—trauma related to the birth, the difficulty of adapting to caring for the baby, or the change in self-image.
在生完小孩后，很多女性会遭受心理问题的折磨。她们会在不同的事情上碰壁——和分娩相关的精神创伤，适应照料婴儿带来的困难，或者自我形象的改变。
Some 10-15% of women in America and around a quarter in Brazil are reckoned to suffer from postpartum depression. Some women have notions of a perfect “natural” birth and are upset if it does not happen as planned. Surprisingly little attention is paid to the factors that make a pelvic tear more likely or to what experience women want to have. They are rarely consulted during labour.
美国约 10%至 15%的女性和巴西约四分之一的女性被认为罹患产后抑郁症。有些女性认为所谓“自然”分娩是最好的。如果顺产没有按计划进行，她们会感到难过。而奇怪的是，为什么骨盆开裂风险会增加，女性期望得到的分娩体验是什么——这些问题得到的关注却出奇地少。在女性分娩时，人们极少和她们商量这些事情。
The importance of the postnatal adjustment has been implicitly recognised in traditional rest periods such as China’s zuo yuezi (“sitting the month”). Yet this is poorly reflected in modern health systems, which tend to offer plenty of check-ups during pregnancy, but very few after it.
传统的产后修养期，比如中国的“坐月子”，暗示了人们是重视产后恢复的。然而，这种重视在现代医疗体制中体现得远远不够。该体制倾向于在怀孕期间安排大量的体检，而产后的体检却少之又少。
It is usual for women in countries including America and Britain to receive just one visit from a health worker when their babies are six weeks old. American federal law does not even oblige employers to give women paid time off work.
在包括美国和英国的一些国家，产后女性通常只有在婴儿六周大时，才会得到仅此一次的来自医疗工作人员的上门检查。美国的联邦法律甚至没有规定雇主必须为女性提供带薪产假。
A survey of Britain’s National Health Service found that more than half of first-time mothers felt they were not given enough information about emotional changes they might experience.
一项来自英国国民医疗服务体系的调查发现，超过半数首次生育的妈妈都认为没有得到足够的信息，来了解自己可能经历的情绪波动。
It would help if women had access to more information. Some simple steps, such as asking a woman how she feels during childbirth can make the delivery a better experience emotionally, if not physically, suggests an obstetrician at Harvard Medical School.
如果女性能够获得更多信息，那将对她们帮助很大。哈佛医学院的一位产科医生说，一些简单的方法，比如询问女性在分娩期间的感受，即使不能减轻分娩时肉体上的痛苦，也至少可以让产妇获得更好的情感体验。
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