After giving birth, we picture ourselves happily going home together with our little baby. We are expected to know what to do and how to handle this new little life that is now dependent to us while we heal from all the pain and changes brought to us by giving birth. However, that is not always how it is. Studies shows that 1 in every 7 women experience postpartum depression in the year they gave birth. The intensity of the depression may vary from mild to severe symptoms though.
Types of Postpartum Depression
•Baby Blues
Baby blues may be experienced few days after giving birth. Symptoms include mood swings, irritability, feeling overwhelmed, crying, less appetite, trouble in sleeping, anxiety, sadness for no particular reason and feeling tired even when you just woke up.
•Postpartum Depression
Postpartum depression is more intense than baby blues. The symptoms may be the same but it is stronger and may last longer. It may even hinder your capabilities to handle daily tasks, even taking care of your own baby. Symptoms may include intense sadness, excessive crying, loss of appetite and having insomnia, inability to connect with your child, feeling withdrawn from family and friends, severe anxiety and panic attacks, feeling guilty and unworthy as a mother, feeling like you can’t handle being a mother, helplessness, and sometimes thoughts of harming yourself and your baby.
•Postpartum Psychosis
Postpartum Psychosis is a rare condition that develops to mothers few weeks after giving birth. Its symptoms are severe and threatening to both the lives of baby and mommy. Symptoms may include paranoia, sleep disturbances, severe agitation, excessive anger, hallucinations and delusions, disorientations, confusions, excessive and obsessive thoughts about your baby, and attempts to harm yourself and your baby. This case requires immediate treatment from experts. Only a very few mother and baby were able to get through it successfully.
When to See a Doctor or When to Seek Help
In today’s society, we are given the picture that motherhood is a very wonderful thing. Don’t get me wrong, it surely is. But not all mothers are feeling that way especially with those that are experiencing symptoms of Postpartum Depression. When you feel sad about your new life being a mom, when you think you are too overwhelmed by it and it is affecting your emotions and mental health, talk to someone you trust, talk to a friend or a family, or your husband about how you feel so your emotions can be heard too.
If it takes too long before the symptoms disappear, if it is already affecting your ability to take good care of yourself and your baby, if the symptoms are getting worse, if thoughts about harming yourself and your baby is already there, seek for a professional help. Save yourself and your baby from the monster that there is in Postpartum Depression and Postpartum Psychosis. You and your baby deserves to see this world in a much beautiful way and experience the true happiness in this life that no amount of depression could ever take away.