Mom's Opportunity to Access Health, Education, Research, and Support for Postpartum Depression Act sounds very supportive of new mothers. The truth is just the opposite. The cleverly worded title can be shortened to the Mothers Act and it was written by and for the pharmaceutical industry. It was introduced by Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey; the state with the most pharmaceutical companies' headquarters. According to the public interest group, Common Cause, Senator Menendez received over $2 million from the healthcare industry, including drug companies.
The Mothers Act was included in the immense health plan that was recently signed into law. New mothers need to be made aware that this Act was not written to benefit them, but to benefit the drug companies. This Act will have grave results literally.
Postpartum depression, as defined in the Act, is a "mood disorder" that has three categories. The most severe category is "postpartum psychosis." Notice the use of psychiatric terms. The public is supposed to believe that motherhood can cause mental illness. Fear of a new mother suffering "postpartum psychosis" is then increased by the Act stating that one in every one thousand new mothers will suffer the mental illness.
The Act states that postpartum depression goes undiagnosed and untreated due to "social stigma surrounding depression and mental illness." So giving birth and becoming a new mother with vastly fluctuating hormones and physiological changes, as well as the demands of a new baby, is now a mental illness. What is the probability the Mothers Act would have been written if psychiatric drugs did not reap more than $330 billion dollars a year?
The Act establishes federally funded grants to screen all new mothers before they leave their birthing centers and to continue screening during the first year. Although it is unknown why some women suffer depression after giving birth, and most likely there are many reasons including concerns of financially supporting a new baby, the pharmaceutical industry has ensured that it is considered a mental illness that will lead to non-curing, addictive, dangerous psychiatric drugs. As stated in the Act, "the new mother shall be referred to an appropriate mental healthcare provider."
"There is no evidence that any mental disorder is caused by chemical imbalance," a Surgeon General's report states. The much-touted idea of brain chemical imbalance is a total myth with no scientific research ever supporting it. All psychiatric "disorders" are voted into existence by the American Psychiatric Association and have no objective diagnostic tests, such as blood tests or hormone tests. The Mothers Act is the latest version of the old story of the Emperor's New Clothes - get people to believe something exists when in fact it does not. Mothers who have trouble emotionally after giving birth do not have any mental illness. They may have temporary hormonal imbalance. They may need a stronger emotional support system to feel confident they can get help with the new baby. They may need financial assistance. But they are not mentally ill.
The Act also funds clinical research "for the development and evaluation of new treatments for postpartum conditions, including new biological agents." That means synthetic drugs. The pharmaceutical industry has ensured more tax dollars will continue to flow into its coffers.
"The suicide rate is 718 for every 100,000 people taking SSRI/SNRI drugs in clinical trials," Dr. Arif Khan told NIH in August 2002. SSRI/SNRI drugs are antidepressant drugs, which is an oxymoron because the drugs cause depression. They should be called pro-depression drugs. The suicide rate in the general population not taking psychiatric drugs is about 11 for every 100,000 people. In fact, all 33 brands of SSRI/SNRI drugs carry the FDA's most severe warning, a Black Box Warning, for suicide. Besides suicide the drugs have more than 100 other severe side effects, including anxiety, panic attacks, irritability, hallucinations, hostility, aggressiveness, and mania. Antidepressants are mind-altering drugs that have never been shown in any clinical study to help depressed people much more than the herb St. John's Wort or the placebo (sugar pill). In one study the placebo group had significantly better results than the group receiving the antidepressant drug, confirming that the body has natural ways to deal with the ups and downs of life.
Once people are labeled with a mental disorder, such as postpartum psychosis, their behavior is then blamed on the disorder when in fact the drugs are causing the behavior. For a real life example, check out Amy Philo's story on You Tube. She was anxious because her newborn son had a severe allergic reaction to a formula given to her by a physician. Amy's fear and anxiety for her child was absolutely normal and would have subsided once she had her baby safely at home. Instead, she was diagnosed as suffering from postpartum depression and given an antidepressant. She asked if the drug would be safe for her baby since she was breast-feeding. A physician told her yes, the drug would make her baby happy too. Research results do not support what the doctor told Amy. "In conclusion, our results suggest that maternal exposure to fluoxetine (Prozac, Luvox, Sarafem, and Symbyax) during pregnancy and lactation results in enduring behavioral alterations "throughout life." All psychiatric drugs, including antidepressants, are neurotoxins. That means they kill nerve cells everywhere in the body.
"After only being on the antidepressant for a couple of days I had thoughts of killing my baby." Amy was horrified, but instead of blaming the drug's known side effects, the physician blamed the label of postpartum depression. Obviously, Amy's "mental illness" had worsened and she now needed to be put in a psychiatric ward. She didn't agree to the incarceration but her resistance was again labeled as due to her mental illness. The white coats know best! Fortunately Amy's story has a happy ending. She suspected the antidepressant was causing her strange thought patterns. She managed to be released from the psychiatric ward after only a brief stay and she stopped taking the drugs they had given her. All of Amy's symptoms that had been labeled by the medical community as postpartum depression symptoms ceased when she stopped taking the drugs. Her baby and she were home together. A happy ending. That will not be the case when they initiate the Mothers Act. Since every mother is potential income to psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry, we can predict that the majority of new mothers will be labeled and drugged for postpartum depression. It is about money, not health.
The pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry are conjoined twins joined at the wallet. "Adoption of the Mothers Act is a positive development for women and their families," says Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, President of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Scharzberg was one of several influential psychiatrists who Senator Grassley's investigations found had failed to disclose financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.
"In order to survive we psychiatrists must go where the money is," Dr. Steven Sharfstein, APA Vice President told Congress. The money is in prescription psychiatric drugs as demonstrated by the astounding fact that in 2007 the five leading psychiatric drugs grossed more money than the gross national product of half the countries in the world.
The French philosopher Voltaire wrote, "Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." The conjoined twins of the pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry are doing their best to have the public believe the absurdity that the stress and emotional roller coaster of becoming a new mother is a mental illness. Then they get these vulnerable women to commit the atrocity of taking mind-altering, addictive antidepressant drugs that go directly into the baby through the mother's milk. These drugs can make a new mother's life a living hell. Ask Amy Philo.
Even if the mother does not suffer visible side effects from an antidepressant, she is still consuming an addictive drug that is a neurotoxin. And if she breast feeds, her baby is consuming a drug that has been shown to cause severe, irreparable damage.
Pregnant women taking antidepressants have babies who are 6 times more likely to have primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH) or a developing lung disorder. PPH is extremely serious. The drug causes developmental distortion of the lungs leading to lack of oxygen to crucial organs such as the brain, kidneys and liver. PPH is often fatal. Babies who initially survive PPH have long-term health problems including breathing difficulties, seizures and developmental disorders.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
3
1
