Celebrate Motherhood Without the Postpartum Depression

The coming of a new baby can usher highly charged emotions, ranging from extreme joy to baseless fears. While it can be a wonderful, new experience, it can also leave you vulnerable to postpartum depression (PPD). Why? Whether it is your first or the fourth time being mom, the coming days and weeks can be unusually strenuous, frightening and frustrating. The sleeplessness, the fatigue and the overthinking about the future and the responsibilities can combine to drive you into depression.

Depression in pregnant women or new mothers can take many levels of severity, starting off with the milder ‘baby blues.’ This can last for a few days to two weeks. With all the emotions, it is quite natural to feel awed, sad and scared initially during pregnancy or after childbirth. The more severe type is called ‘postpartum depression. This is what you must keep an eye out for. It must not be ignored because it can become complicated. Be aware that the symptoms need not go on and on because these can dissipate with prompt treatment.

The Joy-snatcher Called Postpartum Depression

No mother would trade the joys and pains of motherhood for anything, but it can happen with PPD. What is it and why is it a foe of new mothers? According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), “Postpartum depression is a mood disorder that can affect women after childbirth. Mothers with postpartum depression experience feelings of extreme sadness, anxiety, and exhaustion that may cause it to be difficult for them to complete daily care activities for themselves or for others.”

PPD is not an easy enemy to beat, which is why it has a “… prevalence between 5% and 60.8% worldwide,” says Ghaedrahmati et al. (2017). It is common for new mothers to feel helpless. While emotionally healthy moms regard the arrival of their baby as the happiest phase of their lives, depressed mother feels otherwise. They tend to feel intensely inept that they see motherhood as a bad experience.

What can trigger your mood changes? After the baby is delivered, your pregnancy hormones, the progesterone, will drop. Meanwhile, your estrogen would start to increase again. The shifting of your hormone levels can, alter the levels of your brain chemicals called neurotransmitters, which controls your emotions. While not every new mother would succumb to postpartum depression, combined with all the unique and difficult consequences you have – your genetic predisposition to depression, your other issues, and the challenges of a new mother – you can be at risk for postpartum depression.

Risk Factors for Postpartum Depression

If you are on the way or due in a few days or weeks, you would want to avoid PPD at all cost. So, you must wonder what can trigger it? It is difficult to say, because there is no single cause. Rather, it can be triggered by the combined effects of several factors. In a narrative review of postpartum depression risk factors by Ghaedrahmati et al. (2017), it was concluded that “… economic and social factors, obstetrical history, and biological factors, lifestyle and history of emotional illness…” can be the critical factors to watch out for.

If the levels of your hormones are restored to their pre-pregnancy levels in a week or so, the depressive symptoms may dissipate naturally. If the feelings of sadness, wretchedness and uncertainty, however, stay on for a week or two, it is best to have your symptoms assessed right away. You may already have postpartum depression. If you have any of the following risk factors, you could be at a higher risk and must seek help with haste as soon as you notice the behavioral and emotional changes in you. These are the risk factors that are considered to be reliable predictors of postpartum depression:

• Prenatal emotional conditions, such as anxiety depression
• Early history of depression
• Genetic history of mood disorders
• Childbearing blues
• Recent traumatic life events
• Lack of support from family and friends
• Marriage problems or issues on the home front
• Poor self-esteem
• Monetary worries for child support
• Poor health or moodiness of the baby
• Single parenthood
• Accidental pregnancy
• Being financially deprived
• Poor health

Postpartum depression does not only affect the mother. The mother’s condition can similarly impact the infant’s physical and emotional health and cognitive development. The consequences can be reflected in the child’s poor eating habits, which may cause malnourishment, delayed development, poor mother-child connection, intense and lingering stress, and damaging costs on the family ties and the social life.

Labeling Your After Childbirth-Mood Disorder

Attention is shifting to postpartum depression. Recently, new subcategories of postpartum depression are added to the existing group. Which of these haunts you?

• “Baby Blues” – These are the unexpected adverse emotions felt by about 50 to 70 percent of new moms. They are the mildest type of postpartum depression, developing immediately after delivering the infant and dissipating in a week or two. The symptoms include overwhelming emotions, crying spells for no valid reasons, altered eating and sleeping patterns, and shifting moods, such as irritability and uneasiness.

• Postpartum Depression (PPD) – This has a prevalence of 15 percent. It is more severe than postpartum blues. For some mothers, PPD may develop a few days after childbirth. For others, it can take about a year before they would manifest the symptoms. These manifestations include exhaustion, isolation and withdrawal, loss of interest in pleasurable stuff, unhappiness, desperateness, guilt and worthlessness, absence of concern about the newborn, and self-harm, which may also compromise the baby’s health and security.

• Postpartum Psychosis (PPP) – PPP has a low prevalence at one or two per one thousand new moms. This is a good thing considering that it is the most severe type of emotional condition among new moms. This requires immediate attention being noted as a medical emergency. The symptoms typically and suddenly appear in two to three weeks after childbirth. The condition can be readily spotted with the intense symptoms, such as hallucinations and/or delusions, unusual behavior, self-harming thoughts, quick mood shifts, hyperactivity, and intents to harm the infant.

• Postpartum Anxiety (PPA) – Only around10 percent of new moms will develop PPA, either along with depression or anxiety. It is also common for moms with PPA to develop panic disorder, exhibiting panic attacks. Some of the noticeable symptoms are lack of concentration, irrepressible racing thoughts, tenseness, deviations in sleeping and eating patterns, and physical symptoms – hot flashes, light-headedness and vomiting.

• Postpartum Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (PPOCD) – Only about three to four percent of new moms will likely develop this newest addition to the group of PP mood disorders. The telltale symptoms are over protectiveness to the infant an doing repetitive movements or rituals like organizing the nursery again and again to ease fears and worries, or relentlessly feeding the baby afraid that it isn’t nourished enough. New mothers with PPOCD may also have constant, troubling thoughts or imaginings of the infant and they may also feel scared to be left alone with the little one.

• Postpartum Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PPTSD) – This condition is experienced only by around one to six percent of women after childbirth. Like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), PPTSD is usually triggered by a traumatic event. The traumatic events can come in the form of unplanned pregnancy, unexpected cesarean section, giving birth to a frail baby, going through a complicated delivery or a childbirth, using invasive interventions, etc. Like PTSD, it may cause the moms to experience flashbacks and nightmares of their trauma, causing them insomnia, panic attacks and excessive fear. Remember, you can celebrate motherhood by overcoming trauma, but you must seek help.

Postpartum depression is natural. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to differentiate from the worst forms of PPD. To avoid any of these complications after delivery, it would be best to seek counseling, even before you give birth to your precious child. Nothing can take the place of your enjoyment as a mother. Do not let postpartum depression steal it from you.

Celebrating the Joys of Being a New Mother

Giving birth to a child can bring you boundless joy. It is a time for fulfilment, and it can be the happiest time for you as well. Motherhood can complete you, yet it seems like it is causing your emotional health to decline. Why is this so? Know that about 15 percent of new moms are not spared from postpartum depression. If you have a higher risk for postpartum depression, avoid the inevitable by seeking early help from a licensed and experienced professional independently contracted with Carolina Counseling Services – Fuquay-Varina, NC (N. Main St.).

Experiencing a 360-degree turn around can be distressing for any new mom, expecting to have a wonderful afterbirth only to be faced with immense challenges and worries. It is best to reach out for support. You just cannot ease yourself from the symptoms of PPD. It does not mean you are a flawed or bad mother, but you can be if you won’t seek the professional intervention of a therapist contracted with CCS – Fuquay-Varina, NC (N. Main St.).

If you are concerned about your baby or you wish to be a good mother, you can do so by receiving help. You have the choice to enjoy the milestones of your baby and celebrate your motherhood without postpartum depression. We are as eager to reach out to you. Call us today.

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