You should be happy. You have a healthy newborn. So why do you cry for no reason? The answer lies within you: It's hormones…again.
Baby Blues
After delivery, many women experience mood swings. One minute they're all smiles; the next, they're consumed with an almost overwhelming anxious sensation. Over the course of a day (or even a few hours) a new mom could feel sad, anxious, angry, fearful, elated, contented, alone, helpless, loved, confident, and bonded with her baby and other loved ones.
Commonly, new moms feel depressed, have difficulty concentrating, lose their appetite, and are unable to sleep (even when the baby is sleeping soundly or when a helpful loved one is temporarily caring for the baby).
These feelings – commonly called baby blues or postpartum blues – show up a few days after delivery and normally go away in a week or so. The baby blues are a normal part of early motherhood, and occur in up to 85 percent of postpartum women.
Long-lasting Blues
For about 10 percent of new moms, the baby-blues symptoms are more severe, last more than two weeks after delivery, or manifest themselves several months after delivery. These feelings will not resolve without intervention.
If you have any of the following symptoms, you might have postpartum depression (PPD):
- Strong feelings of anger or depression that interfere with daily living or your ability to care for your baby
- Strong feelings of anxiety, sadness, worthlessness that interfere with daily living or your ability to care for your baby
- Baby blues that occur more than a month after delivery
- Loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities
- Emotional numbness or apathy
- Fatigue
- Frequent crying spells that persist and worsen over time
- Irrational behavior
- Impaired ability to concentrate or to make decisions
- Changes in appetite
- Unexplained weight loss or weight gain
- Insomnia or an increased need for sleep
- Intense worry or disinterest in baby
- Fear of harming baby
- Thoughts of harming yourself
One in 1,000 women will develop postpartum psychosis, a more serious illness that requires immediate treatment and hospitalization. Women typically experience this within the first month of delivery. They can experience paranoia or hallucinations that command the mother to hurt herself or the newborn.
PPD Risk Factors
Postpartum depression is not dependent on the number of children you have or how old you are when you have them. It doesn't appear to be related to your economic status nor how much schooling you've completed. It's more likely to occur in women who have a lack of emotional or social support and who have any of the following risk factors:
- Previous postpartum depression episode
- Depression or mental illness not related to pregnancy
- Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD)
- Unwanted pregnancy
- Difficult labor or delivery complications
- Baby with a birth defect
- Recent stressful events, such as a family death
- Recently relocated to an area without family or friends
- Difficult marriage or no supportive partner
Postpartum depression can be treated with therapy, medications, and other support systems.
What You Can Do
First, realize you're not going crazy. You didn't do anything wrong, and you didn't bring this on yourself. A significant number of women experience what you're experiencing.
If you think you're struggling with postpartum depression, contact your healthcare team. They can help you map out a treatment plan that will work for you. If the treatment plan includes antidepressant medications, be sure to let your doctor know if you're breastfeeding. The medicines can be passed on to your baby through your breast milk.
Whether it's baby blues or postpartum depression, here are a few things that can help you cope with your emotional instability:
- Talk to someone you trust.
- Acknowledge your limitations. You can't do it all, nor are you expected to. Decide what's important and let the rest slide.
- Accept help from others. But if no one offers, it might just mean that they don't want to interfere. Ask them for help with childcare, housecleaning, or running errands.
- Lie down and try to sleep when your baby sleeps.
- Write in a journal to clarify and release your emotions.
- If your past is contributing to current fears, talking with a counselor or mental health professional might help you.
- Take time for you. Join a health club to regain your pre-pregnancy shape, relax in a warm bath, or go to lunch with your girlfriends.
- Make time for your partner. Try making a weekly date for just the two of you. Discuss how you're each feeling, what you like about this time in your life, and anything else that will keep you close to each other.
- Give yourself permission to feel overwhelmed. Your whole life has changed with the delivery of this baby – even if you had other children at home. Talking to other moms might help you cope.
- Keep in mind that there's no such thing as the perfect mom, the perfect baby, or the perfect family. Relax.
Although it might not seem like it now, you can feel normal again. Make use of all the resources available to you – your spouse, your family, your church community, your friends, and healthcare professionals. |
