Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote): I rise to reflect on this week, which is perinatal anxiety and depression awareness (PANDA) Week.
PANDA Week is about bringing awareness to perinatal anxiety and depression.
As many as one in five expecting or new mums will experience anxiety or depression, and it is important to know as many as one in 10 dads will experience it too.
This is an incredibly serious issue, but it is one that is not often spoken about. Too many people are afraid to speak out about how they are feeling for fear of judgement and for fear of being seen as bad parents.
The PANDA organisation aims to break down this stigma, and it supports parents who are affected by anxiety and depression during pregnancy and in those first challenging years of parenthood, because the truth is that nothing rocks us to our core as much as having a child. Few things are so intimately and emotionally linked to our sense of self. I am blessed to be a mum to two lively little girls and I know all too well that, particularly for first‑time parents, nothing prepares you for that paradigm shift, for the physical and emotional exertion, for the loss of connections and independence or for the chaos and the self-doubt.
So during this PANDA Week I say to all parents: it is not easy, and you are doing an incredible job. I look forward to what the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System has to say for parents, and I give a special mention to those in our community who are supporting each other through the parenting journey, including our incredible Mums in Darebin network.
