From Norman Sheppard
I’m not a woman and therefore am unlikely to have a baby, but when looking at
postnatal depression from an evolutionary psychology point of view
(26 February, p 50),
surely the reasoning goes like this:
Postnatal depression is an evolutionary adaptation to allow new mothers,
especially first-time ones, to concentrate on nurturing the infant while they
temporarily withdraw from society at large, with all its competing demands. Men
just see postnatal depression as a “woman’s problem”, and therefore (mainly
male) doctors try to treat it as such.
Infants raised by postnatally depressed women should therefore have a
stronger start in life. Contrary to the assertion ascribed to evolutionary
psychologists in the article, this would lead one to predict that older,
first-time mothers would be more likely to suffer from postnatal depression.
Studies show this to be the case.
Dubai
