Postpartum Depression Information is truly vital to all pre and postpartum women. I describe Postpartum Depression, also called the “baby blues”, as the range of emotions, physical and behavioral, some mothers experience after the birth of a baby. Postpartum Symptoms can range from mild to severe.

According to scientific studies, a huge percentage of women experience postpartum depression after giving birth. Research has also proved that this psychological condition is more than just baby blues, instead it is a real illness that could affect a mother’s physiological and psychological functioning.

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Postpartum depression is a form of acute depression, which can affect women, and less frequently men, after childbirth.

Postpartum depression is suggested to be caused with hormonal changes in the woman’s body soon after blessed event. The fact is that fathers may also experience the postpartum depression. This form of depression may be as foudroyant so lengthy. It may last from a few hours to several days, sometimes weeks and gain momentum with lifestyle changes and a discomfort coming from it.

The problem with some descriptions can be called the maternity blues, but it is not so, that is not the same thing as postpartum depression. When the maternity blues is a mild case of the problem, the postpartum depression is suggested to be a kind of psychosis. As a rule, the postpartum depression lasts from some hours to 21 days and declines with getting adequate amounts of sleep.

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Throughout the past 33 years in private practice, hundreds of women have told me they felt that their current health problems started soon after the birth of their child. The child may have been her first or fifth, and might now be a teenager or even a grown man or woman, but the mother remembers the postpartum onset of her symptoms as if it were yesterday.

The symptoms that usually start within the first to twelfth postpartum months vary widely among mothers. A few of the most common are despondency and despair, chronic fatigue, sleeplessness, anxiousness, lack of confidence, loss of sex drive and passion, muscle and joint pains, unhealthy skin, hair and nails, digestive disturbances, bladder problems, heart disease, trouble breathing, and a host of troubling emotions and moods swings. A woman can be puzzled, frustrated, even embarrassed when she reveals symptoms that have plagued her for years. She may have shared her self–observations with doctors only to find that they were not worthy of an acknowledgment or comforting comment from her physician. Any attempt on her part to connect the birth of one of her children with those symptoms may have been met with skepticism or passed over. Yet, she can’t shake the feeling that something about that particular birth began her health decline.

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Postpartum depresson (PPD) is also called as postnatal depression. It is a form of clinical depression hitting women (and sometimes even men) after the birth of a child. Studies indicate as much as 5-25% of women suffer from postpartum depression symptoms.

Having a baby is one of the happiest moments in the life of a mother. It can be so thrilling and exciting to have a new baby enter your lives. But it can even be very challenging at times. A woman goes through a lot of changes at physical and emotional levels during pregnancy and child birth.

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Dean Raffelock, D.C., L. Ac, CCN, DACBN, DIBAK

Hyla Cass, M.D.

Postpartum depression (PPD) Postpartum Anxiety (PPA) have become a national epidemic in the United States, affecting 15%-20% of all new mothers, or about 600,000-800,000 women annually. (1) It is now estimated that over 30 million Americans are on antidepressant or anti-anxiety medications. (2) The majority of this 30 million are women who have one or more children. The chance of suffering from PPD increases with each successive child. (3)

The most common medical treatment for postpartum depression is SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressant drugs. Postpartum Anxiety Disorder is most commonly treated by the benzodiazepine family of drugs like Valium, Ativan, Xanax, and Klonopin. Combination reuptake inhibitors for both serotonin and norepinephrine (SNRIs) are also commonly used in postpartum depression. In the case of postpartum psychosis, antipsychotic drugs are used and are immediately necessary. Many women are now given samples of SSRIs as they are leaving the maternity ward. Most medical sources believe that PPD is caused by an imbalance of brain chemistry and that pharmaceutical intervention is the treatment of choice. While a certain percentage of women suffering from PPD do need pharmaceutical assistance, these are far fewer than are actually receiving them. Recent Meta-studies show this to be true.  While it is clear that some women with PPD do need and benefit from pharmaceutical intervention, it is our experience that an integrative approach yields the best results.

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This is a question which does not have a black and white answer, and it is a question that is as much for the society in which we live as it is for healthcare practitioners, families ,friends and  mothers.  Why?  Because in societies where women have the most support, i.e. paid leave and automatic postnatal health and  household chore support, the incidence of PPD (postpartum depression) is significantly lower.

PPD and PPA (Postpartum Anxiety) are experienced by many women after child birth and yet it’s been little more than a decade that we have been talking about the problem.  We give a lot of credit to Marie   Osmond, who 12 years ago went on the Oprah show and talked about her experience with PPD and shed some light on the issue.  Up until that point, PPD and PPA did not have a face.  It was not something discussed in polite company.  The myth of “happy motherhood and perfect baby” was the picture most of us carried around.  And that picture made it even more difficult for mothers to come forward and get the help that they needed.

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Warning: The news story in this link is highly disturbing, but true….

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090727/ap_o…

What do you think our mental/prenatal health systems could do to protect babies of mothers with mental health issues? If you search “mom kills baby” a hundred diffrent stories come up…. how many babies have to die these gruesome, horrible deaths before some laws are in place to protect them?

I think that babies shouldn’t be sent home with “sick” mothers… the mothers have to stay in a supervised atmosphere or an institution in order to be with her baby/babies. that way she’s under supervision, her baby is protected, and mom gets the help/medication she needs until she shows PROOF that she’s well.

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Product Description
Featuring two full-body strength workouts, this fitness fan also provides guidelines for aerobic exercise and stretching for any prenatal or postpartum woman already cleared by her doctor for participation in a fitness program. With a focus on core stability and pelvic integrity, each exercise has a simplified and an advanced variation as well as 2nd and 3rd trimester modifications. Special emphasis is on safety, how to strengthen abdominal muscles properly before, … More >>

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• ISBN13: 9780971712430
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.

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Mothers have experienced postpartum depression for as long as man has been on this earth. They say that no one knows exactly what causes the depression, but some people think it may be tied in to a woman’s hormone levels. What we do know is that postpartum depression sometimes creeps up on you when you have a demanding baby.

Effective Strategies To Fight Postpartum Depression

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