Abstract
Feelings of depression, anxiety and devastation, loss of interest in life, irritability (often unfounded), and a sense of alienation from own child - all signs of postpartum depression. A woman while experiencing a feeling of guilt and worthlessness feels like a bad mother. Depression may be accompanied by loss of appetite and insomnia, but this is mainly because most often in the first few months of a young mother she does not have enough sleep and energy. Usually in a month or two, these feelings, called baby blues, usually fade away, as the woman learns how to deal with her new life and how to satisfy baby’s needs. However sometimes these negative senses stay and turn into a lasting depression that will eventually need a medical supervision.
Different statistics show different numbers, but generally from 10 to 15 percent of new mothers suffer from postpartum depression. Every second of them will experience a severe form of depression, according to US researchers. In these cases the assistance of a psychologist, strengthening therapy and support of loved ones may not be enough, and doctors recommend use of psychotropic drugs - antidepressants.
Men – new, and especially stay-at-home fathers may also experience postpartum depression as their life also shifts by 180 degrees. Symptoms of PPD in men and women differ due to physiological differences. Men tend to get more aggressive and will start to stay out of home more in order not to feel trapped and not to feel guilty about the negative feelings they should not normally be experiencing.
While postpartum depressions in women are scientifically explained by the major shift in hormones, there are no such changes in men, yet up to 10 percent of the stronger sex experience depression during their women’s pregnancy and during first 6 months after birth.
However, not all parents who experience depression seek help - many of them are afraid to admit to other people and even to themselves that the birth of a child has become for them a source of painful feelings and loss of composure.
What is the risk of postpartum depression?
If a woman ca not cope with her condition, and she does not get the necessary help, depression can last for many months, gradually aggravated. Another negative aspect is that the mood of a parent, especially mother is transferred to the baby. The world in which he lives becomes deprived of joy and warmth; it has more of sadness, uncertainty and anxiety. Many researchers emphasize that the mother's depression can lead to a delay in the development of a child's speech, problems with concentration. Experts from the Center for Mental Health of Medical Sciences concluded that such children are more anxious, they are less sure of the mother's love; their affection can wear a neurotic character.
In recent years, the problem of postpartum depression became one of the most "acute" medical topics in the Western countries. Doctors are trying to understand causes of long lasting baby blues, whether they are possible to predict and prevent.
Depression in new parents can occur for various reasons. Among the biological - hormonal changes, natural decline of emotions after childbirth, weakness and fatigue during the first weeks of motherhood. Among the psychological causes: genetic predisposition of women to emotional disorders, difficult situation in the family, and a sense of frustration and unpreparedness for the changes that parenthood brings.
Doctors are still not able to determine the exact “algorithm” that leads to the disease. But the question that is being raised more and more often is why postpartum depression became so widespread these days.
Of course, PPD is not the “invention” of our time. Even back in the IV century BC Greek physician Hippocrates wrote that some women become mentally unstable after childbirth. However, before such diseases were a rather rare exception to the rule.
The invention of washing machines, diapers and baby food made lives of mothers so much easier as well as tremendous medical progress. Still oddly, all these achievements do not seem to ameliorate the situation.
It is possible that one of the reasons that postpartum depression becomes a "disease of our time," lies in the features of a modern lifestyle. General intense and often exhausting rhythm of our lives makes a person more vulnerable. A sharp change in priorities that has occurred over the past 100 years, makes a woman "torn" apart in her quest to make a career, to achieve independence, self-fulfillment and at the same time to give birth and raise a child. In addition, modern philosophy of putting yourself first and achieving comfort, while the birth of a child always requires sacrifices from a mother – that is the law of nature. To many women such "switch" does not come easily.
So what can newly found parents do in order to avoid states of depression?
First of all, a stay at home parent should get as much help as possible from others. Secondly, they should try to find positivity in everyday activity and thirdly, if matters get worse - seek help from a specialist. It is important to remember that the difficult and unexplored part of parenthood will pass.
References
Margery D. Rosen, Sad Dads, Parents Magazine. Retrieved on 10 January 2016 from
http://www.parents.com/parenting/dads/sad-dads/
Marla Paul, (March 2013). Surprising Rate of Women Have Depression After Childbirth. Northwestern University. Retrived on 10 January 2016 from http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2013/03/surprising-rate-of-women- have-depression-after-childbirth.html
Dorothy K. Sit and Katherine L. Wisner. The Identification of Postpartum Depression. US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved on 9 January 2016 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2736559/
