Melissa Mendoza had a strong enough grasp of English to hold down a professional career, but after a traumatic experience giving birth, and isolated from her family, she struggled to find support in the right words to capture what she was going through.
Mendoza understood how what she was feeling might be treated in Peru, where she was born. Though mental health was “not very openly discussed”, those in need still knew how to find care.
Melissa Mendoza, who was born in Peru, found information about post-natal anxiety and depression difficult to access in a comprehensible way, even though her English is strong.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Depression and anxiety was “actually seen as a curse, so maybe people would ask for healer support; it’s [considered to be] very spiritual”, says Mendoza, whose Melbourne-born daughter Aitana is now 2½.
Native Spanish speaker Mendoza found an abundance of information about baby care, but nothing that resonated with her own situation.
“My English is still very good, but I found it is not tested until you are unwell with a mental health condition,” she says. “I found it very interesting how much words [in what she could find online] didn’t resonate with me and didn’t even connect.”
One in five new mothers in Australia experience post-natal depression, but Mendoza found terminology in the support material of her adopted homeland “quite clinical, cold and Western”, and not relatable, despite the best support efforts of the local maternal and child health nurse.
“There was a gap between what I needed to hear and what was available … if you ask me, ‘Do you have depression or thoughts of suicide?’ it’s too confronting because I didn’t grow up listening to those words,” she says.
As a speaker of one of the 300 languages present in Australian society, Mendoza – who moved here nine years ago – also did not understand that it was safe to be open about her mental health, and that her child would not risk being removed if she did so.
She turned to podcasts to hear other women’s first-person stories, through which she heard a psychiatrist speaking in terms she felt “normalised” her depression and anxiety. Through therapy with that same psychiatrist, she could recover.
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