So apparently there are people in the world – the first world – who are depressed about the fact they have several healthy children.
Tragically, these children are all of the same gender and this makes their parents very sad. Depressed even.
Some simply live with this thing called “gender depression”. Others take more drastic and expensive action, subjecting their bodies and bank accounts to incredibly intrusive procedures in order to get a baby with a particular set of genitals.
Because……well, I’m not sure.
We’re talking about this because in an interview published last week, one Sydney mother suffering from ‘gender depression’ spoke of paying $50,000 to have a girl an an overseas clinic because the process of gender selection for non-medical reasons is illegal in Australia.
She describes sobbing in the ultrasound room when pregnant with her second and then her third son after she was told she was having a healthy baby boy and how she became determined to have a girl at any price. Literally. She spoke about feeling taunted by pink clothes in baby shops.
I am broadly supportive of women telling their stories and expressing their feelings about taboo subjects. There are no ‘wrong’ feelings and you can’t help the way you feel about something.
Top Comments
depression can be brought on by many things: job loss, illness, death in the family, losing a beloved pet, loneliness, HSC exam stress. sometimes depression just comes on suddenly and inexplicably. i am a Lifeline telephone counsellor and I talk to many depressed people, some who are suicidal. what makes one person feel this way and not another ? why do some people have more resilliance than others? who can say - everyone is different. someone might lose their mother and be sad but ok, then their dog dies and they just fall apart. the point i suppose is that if you feel a certain way, those feelings are real and legitimate. saying "suck-it-up sunshine" isn't very helpful, and is something i would never say to someone on the phone who was telling me how awful they feel.
if a person is feeling depressed about their baby having a certain gender, i would encourage them to seek professional counselling. perhaps there are underlying issues that need to be addressed.
All these stories about babies being unwanted, gender selection etc. are getting me down today (been trying for a baby for one year, its truly heartbreaking).... am going to close the internet now and focus my mind on something positive!