Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Depression or Baby Blues?

depression postnatal Changes in hormone levels after childbirth can profoundly affect the emotions. Baby blues and postpartum depression are much more common features and most of the new moms experience a kind of feeling down after delivery. In most women, emotional swings - the “baby blues” - last only a few days, but in others they lead to more prolonged, serious condition called postpartum depression (also seen on the internet as post partum depression or even post pardum depression).

Baby blues

The baby blues are mood swings caused by hormonal changes. In all likelihood this period of feeling low one minute and euphoric the next won't last beyond the first week but you still need a lot of support to get you through it.

Maybe the baby blues are a natural sign to those around you that you need time and space to come to terms with being a mother.

Your hormones, progesterone and oestrogen, will have been high during pregnancy. After you have had your baby, these hormone levels drop and your body may find it difficult to adjust.

I would cry all day long. I didn't want to do anything. I would do what I had to do to take care of my boys. I played with them, fed them, bathed them, put them in bed and then just sat there feeling empty.Anonymous, Internet

This can have a marked effect on your emotions. With this, and the fact that you are probably completely exhausted from the labour and lack of sleep, it is not at all surprising that you may not be feeling on top of the world.

What can you do help yourself?

Give yourself time: accept that you will feel like this for a short time and that what you are going through is incredible common.
Accept offers of help and do not try to do everything yourself.
Try to talk about your feelings and have a good cry if it helps.
Tell your partner you need a lot of love and affection, but remember this is a time of upheaval and change for him to.

Postnatal depression

If symptoms that started out as the common baby blues do not go away and in fact, start to become worse, you could be suffering from postpartum depression.

Test yourself with our online depression test.

There are many reasons why postnatal depression occurs. It depends on you as a person, your personal circumstances and the way your baby behaves. The following risk factors may make you more susceptible to post partum depression:

If you enjoyed a senior position at work or high-flying career before the birth, it can be difficult to adjust to the status changed.
If you already have difficulties in your relationship, the baby may make them worse; this in itself may lead to disillusionment and low self-esteem.
If you had an unexpectedly difficult birth experience, you could easily feel demoralized and feel that you have failed in some way.
If you have had depression in the past, you are more prone to postnatal depression now.
A very demanding, sleepless baby can trigger postnatal depression from sheer exhaustion.
If you have particularly difficult living conditions and no support network, this can exacerbate postnatal depression.
If you have bottled up your emotions and not sought help early on, postnatal depression may develop.

Postpartum Depression: How Common?

The CDC issued its latest statistics on postpartum depression, and the figures show that certain groups of women may be at higher risk.

The CDC's report included more than 52,000 new moms in 17 states. The women, who had given birth within the past two to six months, completed a survey that included these questions:

Since your new baby was born, how often have you felt down, depressed, or hopeless?
Since your new baby was born, how often have you had little interest or little pleasure in doing things?

Responses were "never," "rarely," "sometimes," "often," or "always." Women who said "often" or "always" to either question were classified as having self-reported postpartum depression.

The prevalence of self-reported postpartum depression ranged from 11.7% in Maine to 20.4% in New Mexico.

Postpartum depression was more often reported by teenage moms, mothers with less than 12 years of education, Medicaid patients, smokers, victims of physical abuse before or during pregnancy, and women under traumatic or financial stress during pregnancy. Having a low-birth-weight baby or a baby admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit was also tied to self-reported postpartum depression in most of the 17 states.

The postpartum depression statistics, published in the April 11 edition of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, don't separate women who became depressed after giving birth from women who were already depressed before pregnancy.

The CDC urges women to get treatment for postpartum depression for the sake of mother and baby alike.

The CDC also notes that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that doctors screen all new moms for postpartum depression four to six weeks after birth.

(Source: CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, April 11, 2008; vol 57: pp 361-366.)

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