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Home › Articles › Postpartum Issues › Dealing with Postpartum Depression?

Dealing with Postpartum Depression?

Why Getting Help Is a Good Thing for Mom and Baby

By Alexandria Powell

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About a month after Karen Putz's second child was born, she began to realize something wasn't right. Putz, from Bolingbrook, Ill., remembers crying a lot and being incredibly tired.

"One afternoon, a friend that I hadn't seen in a long time came to visit and I couldn't even keep my eyes open," says Putz. "I told her I needed to sleep, handed her the baby and just conked out for an hour."

Putz's doctor told her she had the "baby blues." He was wrong. She was suffering from postpartum depression.

"With postpartum depression, there's an incredible heaviness and everything takes an effort," Putz says. "There's no joy at a time when you should be feeling incredible love for your infant. I remember looking at my daughter's baby pictures a few years later and telling my husband, 'I don't remember how beautiful she was.' It was like looking at someone else's child – that's how detached I was during that time."

Putz's situation is not unusual. According to the American Psychiatric Association, anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of new moms suffer from moderate or severe postpartum depression. And postpartum depression impacts more than mothers. Recent studies show that when parents are depressed, their parenting behaviors may change, potentially leading to negative consequences for Baby, too.

What Is Postpartum Depression?
Postpartum depression is a biological illness that can emerge any time from a month to a year after the birth of a baby. Symptoms may include feelings of guilt, fatigue and a sense of worthlessness. Some mothers may also worry about hurting themselves or their babies. It's not to be confused with the "baby blues," a common term for the weepiness and mood swings that many women experience in the first week after childbirth.
 
The Effects of Postpartum Depression
Emerging statistics suggest up to 20 percent of women may experience some kind of significant mood disruption in the postpartum period, says Susan Stone, a licensed certified social worker, certified perinatal mood disorders instructor and president of Postpartum Support International. "And this includes anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, manifestations of bipolar illness and on the very extreme end of the spectrum, a disorder called postpartum psychosis, which occurs in less than 1 percent of women diagnosed with postpartum mood disorders," she says.

The dangerous effects of postpartum psychosis are well known – symptoms include frantic energy, paranoia and irrational thoughts, which may include harming the self or the child. But Stone reemphasizes that the condition is very rare. "A diagnosis of postpartum depression does not mean that you are going to end up becoming psychotic," she says. (If you or your partner is experiencing symptoms of postpartum psychosis, it should be treated as a medical emergency.)


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