Postpartum Depression
Approximately 80 percent of new moms experience the baby blues — feelings of sadness, anxiousness, or helplessness. This is a natural reaction not only to your new situation but also to the rapid hormonal changes (rapid decreases of estrogen and progesterone) that are taking place inside your body. While the baby blues pass for most women within days or a week, postpartum depression is a more serious and longer-lasting situation.
Postpartum depression sounds similar to the baby blues, with women experiencing some of the same emotions. The difference is that postpartum depression interferes with your ability to function and handle everyday activities over a long period of time. Symptoms of postpartum depression include the following:
Lack of energy or motivation
Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and being overwhelmed
Frequent crying
Overeating or undereating
Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
Inability to focus or concentrate, remember things, or make decisions
Sleep dysfunction — too much or not enough sleep
Headaches, chest pains, hyperventilation, or heart palpitations
Lack of interest in things that usually bring you pleasure or interest
Social withdrawal
Many of the above symptoms by themselves are completely normal. It's likely you may be very tired and need to sleep, or you may have trouble sleeping with a newborn in the house — that's nothing abnormal. Additionally, if you're recovering from a difficult birth, you might not feel like seeing a lot of people, or you might find your whole life turned upside down by having a baby. These feelings are normal. But when many of them are combined, and they interfere with your ability to live your life and to simply move forward, you need to see your physician.
Postpartum psychosis is a rare and extreme version of postpartum depression that affects about one or two out of every 1,000 women. It includes hallucinations, delusions, and obsessive thoughts about the baby. It usually appears within the first six weeks after birth and requires immediate treatment.
If you experience symptoms that worry you or are making your life difficult, it is essential that you tell someone about them. Talk to your partner as well as to your health-care practitioner. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, and none of it is your fault or due to any deficiency on your part. Seeing a therapist or taking antidepressants, or both, have proven to be very effective in treating postpartum depression. Women who already suffer from severe depression or manic-depressive illness are at extremely high risk for postpartum depression; it is important that such women keep in close contact with their mental health-care provider in the immediate weeks following delivery.
Your health-care provider will let you know when you can begin to have sexual relations again, usually about four to six weeks after birth. Generally you'll be given the all-clear at your postpartum checkup. Remember to have patience with your body. It has done a lot of work and may not respond in the same old ways.
In addition to talking to your health-care provider, rest as much as you can. Get others to help you around the house and with the baby, and talk about your feelings to anyone who will listen. Keep busy with activities and people, and remember that you have just gone through a very significant life-changing event. You can't expect to bounce back immediately.
