Mothers and advocates call for more education around perinatal mental health in the Yukon

When Kylie Campbell-Clarke became pregnant with her first baby a year and a half ago, she didn't expect the system to be in what she describes as such a state of failure that it would result in deciding that Maverick would be her one and only child. 

"The solution to my poor mental health was ... you'll have the baby, and you'll be fine," Campbell-Clarke said, as she described her difficult pregnancy dealing with depression and anxiety after she went through a miscarriage.  

"I should have been seen by the psychiatrist from the get-go. But instead, I didn't get that until four months postpartum. When you're giving birth, the hospital should have someone there counselling you, going like, 'How are you doing?' As soon as the baby's born, they kind of check all the incisions, but they don't check on you as a human being." 

Campbell-Clarke says not once was she asked about her mental health during or after her pregnancy — she was left advocating for herself.

Her experience echoes that of other women in the Yukon. According to the results of a recent survey by Postpartum Support Yukon, one-third of women say they were never asked about their mental health during or after their pregnancy.

The online survey, conducted between August 2022 to March 2023, had 28 responses: almost all participants live in Whitehorse, with 68 per cent between the ages of 25 and 34 and 32 per cent between 35 and 44.

Shanny Kaiser, the founder of Postpartum Support Yukon and author of the survey, said the survey is quite informal but goes to show how society often romanticizes parenthood, making it hard for those with a different experience to come forward.  

She said in addition to stigma, there's a lack of education surrounding perinatal mental health — which covers the period from conception through the first year after birth — in the Yukon. Her organisation is calling on the territorial government to create a public health campaign on the issue.

"Commonly, we hear 'postpartum depression' ... but it actually can arise at any point," Kaiser said.

"The effects are rippling. If it's not treated, if it's not caught, the birthing parent can continue to experience that for years. And we see it impacts partners, and then we see it also in the children in terms of their behaviour and cognitive development."

While Statistics Canada doesn't include data from the northern territories, including the Yukon, its last report showed 23 per cent of Canadian women who had recently given birth had feelings consistent with postpartum depression and/or anxiety. 

Meanwhile, Postpartum Support Yukon estimates that an average of 91 Yukon mothers experience perinatal or postpartum mood and anxiety disorder each year.

"I think all of us by virtue of living in the north (are at risk)," Jo Lukawitski, who works with Partners for Children — an organization that supports Yukon families and young children — said. 

"It's a geographically isolated location and the loneliness that can happen after having a baby, it gets magnified."