My baby boy is now 31/2 months and yesterday I looked in the mirror and for the first time I noticed my hairline is receding. I already look so awful after this second pregnancy and none of this happened with the first. Granted I was unable to take prenatal vitamins because it never stayed down but had I known about this hair loss horror I might have kept forcing them down everytime they came up. My hair thinned a lot with the first pregnancy three years prior but OMG this time I am balding at the front. What can I do to stop this??? My belly still looks awfully fat and jiggly to the point where sucking it in is hopeless and I am too exhausted even to exercise everyday because I am up at stupid hours all the time consumed with baby, preschooler, husband, house work and housewife duties (paying bills, grocery, dropping off and picking up monster toddler at school with baby in tow all the time). I have tyres all around my midsection and I feel so embarrassed by the way I look that I have become dowdy, dressing down in t-shirts to cover my flabby, overlapping belly in my jeans. My self esteem is waning and I feel so depressed (NOT POST NATAL DEPRESSION I might add). I used to be so fit and so skinny that at one time I considered taking weight gain suppliments. I was an avid hiker, gym enthusiast, swimmer, scuba diver and adventurer and at that time I was a carreer oriented woman. I have since given it up to be a full time mommy and wife which equals overwork and underpay. I used to be able to shake off things that could get me down but this weight gain has got me down down down. I know someone is going to tell me to go to councelling but really can anyone suggest anything else before this? My birthday recently passed making me 38 and I went all out, dressed up and looked (I thought) great!! Then I saw the pictures and felt so awful at how fat I looked but marvelled at how pretty I managed to look….especially my hair. It’s not just vanity working here either but I have always been happy with my looks. Now I’m tired though happy with my wonderful husband, toddler and my bundle but my 3 year old is telling me I am a fat mommy. Well now I am a fat, BALDING mommy and that does NOT feel good. I eat right, do the most exhausting work at home that makes me sweat more than the gym and drink plenty water. Whatelse can I do to stop this hair loss and lose this damned weight so I can feel normal again?

For any woman who has had a child, pregnancy can be a great experience excluding of course the nauseating pain that comes with child birth, but then that is an aside considering they have just brought a brand new life into the world. The problem is the pain is not the only side effect of a pregnancy, there is some degree of hair loss involved which is more of a postnatal effect as is well known by many mothers. Somewhere around 50% of women will experience this hair loss at some point in time after child birth. This usually happens within a one to five months period after child birth whereby in or around the third month is where in most cases the effect is really felt. This of course is a very distasteful situation and extremely unnerving especially since this affects their looks and their mood. What is even worst is when the person is a new or even worst yet a young mother which increases their rate for postnatal depression and lowering their self esteem.

What is the cause?

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i had prenatal depression before i gave birth 12 weeks ago which in turn has turned into post natal depression. My GP has put me on Citalopram tablets which dont appear to be working for me. As my mam put it i am high as a kite, almost hysterical, one day and need to be scraped off the ground the next. Is there anybody who is either qualified in this field or anybody who has been or is in this situation that can help me as i am trying to be the best mother and wife that i can but my state of mind is letting me down. Any helpful serious answers would be appreciated.

Did you know that you could avoid developing post natal depression just by getting support before you give birth? Or that doctors often don’t have the training to tell when women are suffering from this problem? Around thirteen percent of women have post natal depression at some point in the year after they give birth, but it often goes unnoticed and untreated. Women are unaware that they have options, aren’t able to tell what’s going on, or fear that they will be stigmatized for feeling depressed. If you’re going to give birth soon, or you have recently, you don’t need fall into this trap.

Knowing the risks and the symptoms of post natal depression, as well as how to prevent and treat it, can go a long way to making sure that you feel happy with your new baby. There are some special considerations to take into account with this kind of depression – after all, most of us who are nursing don’t want to take drugs, even if they might be effective. Psychological therapy, like counseling, can make a difference without risk to our children, and getting support from other mothers before we give birth can make a big difference, too.

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I fear I might have post natal depression, pls describe ur own personal exp if u did and did it accompany prenatal depression too??

As much as women, enjoy the feeling of a baby growing in their wombs for nine months, the post- pregnancy period is always a new experience for most of them.

To a number of them, this period is a dramatic change from the norm and instead of being happy that the belly is free, they suffer from postnatal depression.

It is also what is commonly called the baby blues and not easily understood by other people around the mother.

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Sara is a happy mother with a new baby. She was able to have a natural childbirth, at home with a midwife assisting. With no anesthesia dulling her experience she was able to fully bond with her little girl right away. She recovered quickly from her birth, and was able to delight in her precious addition to the family. Her first childbirth was a vastly different story, however. She had been induced into labor with drugs by her physician. The labor had been long and arduous and she had lost a lot of blood.

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Post partum depression is a condition that manifests itself in women following the birth of a child. The most notable symptoms experienced by sufferers of post partum depression include sleeping disturbances, recurrent sadness, loss of appetite, loss of energy, hopelessness, frustration, exhaustion, guilt, low self esteem, social withdrawal, and many other negative experiences.

The key symptom contributing to the classification of this type of depression is feeling lack of affection for the new born baby. Experts contribute a variety of views regarding facts that you should know about post partum depression.

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