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Postpartum depression (PPD) or the "Baby Blues,” sometimes hits new mothers right after the baby is born. A mild case can dissipate within a week. On the other hand, a serious bout of depression, however, is real cause for concern because of the damage it can inflict on the budding relationship between mother and newborn baby.
Postpartum depression is difficult to diagnose, because some of its symptoms are indistinguishable from the side effects of the new mother's chronic need for sleep. These include sadness, fatigue, insomnia, appetite changes, diminished sex drive, crying episodes, anxiety, and irritability. Newborn babies must eat every hour or so, and they often nap during the day and wake up at night. Whether it is fed by breast or bottle, the baby needs attention frequently and at unpredictable times, which forces its caregivers to wake up repeatedly during the night.
New mothers with the most severe cases of PPD are more easily identified. Their symptoms can be dramatic, and may include despair, a feeling of emptiness and futility, exhaustion, lethargy, a sense of inadequacy in caring for the new baby, a tendency to withdraw from any social contact and to get easily frustrated, moments of rage, incoherent speech and writing, panic attacks and severe anxiety. If any of these symptoms are present in a new mother, healthcare providers can administer a diagnostic test known as the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Mothers who score higher than 13 on this test are likely to have the disease.
Postpartum depression is not uncommon, yet it is much rarer than morning sickness. It may occur in anywhere from 5% to 25% of new mothers in the first few months after the baby is born. Evidence some recent medical research suggests that the condition is a side effect of changes in the mother's hormone levels at the end of pregnancy. However, this explanation is somewhat controversial, because of the lack of evidence that hormonal treatment has helped postpartum depression victims.
In addition to hormone imbalances, some researchers have identified other health conditions that are more common than average among mothers with PPD. These include the choice to feed by formula rather than the breast -- which can contribute to a weaker bond between mother and child -- as well as a tendency toward depression in the mother before pregnancy, cigarette smoking, poor self-image, stress deriving from problems finding childcare, depression and anxiety during pregnancy, life stress, single parenthood, the lack of support from family and friends, a difficult relationship with the father of the child, the temperament of the child -- colicky babies can increase the mother's frustration -- and the mother's feelings about the pregnancy itself. Unplanned and unwanted pregnancies may increase the likelihood of postpartum depression.
These findings should be taken with a grain of salt. Scientists have conducted studies of postpartum depression in many different ways and with different size samples of women, so the results of any one study are difficult to compare with the results of any other. In reality nobody really knows why a substantial minority of women with newborn babies get severely depressed.
Perhaps because of the difficulties with diagnosis, one in five of mothers with postpartum depression actually seek professional help. And yet, it is abundantly clear that many new mothers recover from depression after participating in a support group or in counseling.
Even though the causes of PPD are still unknown, it is clearly a dangerous disease. Most mothers with PPD are emotionally paralyzed by their depression, and probably get inadequate social support as a result. Their mothering suffers, and their babies don't get the love and care they need. PPD mothers focus more on the negative events of childcare than the positive, and cannot cope with their negative feelings. As a result, they can be inconsistent with childcare, for example, by ignoring the baby's crying.
When post-partum depression is left untreated, and causes a new mother to reject her baby, the long-term result can be an insecure attachment between mother and child and later, lifetime problems with the child's ability to form emotional attachments with any one at all. According to research by child psychologists such as Edhborg, an infant that feels rejected by its mother may become so subdued that it will not interact with the mother or any other adult, and the lack of connection with others in its first few months of life will, in turn, deprive the baby of the stimulation it needs for its brain to grow, and lead to a lifetime of difficulties with attachment. A seriously depressed mother, therefore, cannot be expected to support her baby's healthy development on her own. She will need help from a team of professionals from different fields -- therapists, doctors, nurses, and other experts who work with families and children.
A mother with the baby blues needs to stay in touch with her doctor. If her depression is identified early, and she gets treatment either with counseling or with anti-depressants or both, her long term prognosis and that of her child will both be the better for it. *This article is based on the information at http://www.nlm.nih.gov,http://en.wikipedia.org, http://www.nmha.org and http://familydoctor.org |
