Postpartum Depression

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a depression that a woman suffers after giving birth. In an article from PreventDisease.com, doctors in the UK attempted to tailor-make health care for women in the first 28 days of motherhood with a follow up in 10 to 12 weeks. In a study in 2002, they found that women who received the extra care to have a 40% reduction in risk of depression. I know that some women need to be medicated for depression after having a baby, but in the United States we have a society that needs to have results at a snap of a finger. I never thought I would have PPD until after it happened to me. I was lucky in that I was never in any danger of suicide or harming my daughter, but PPD is real. I think that the medical community needs to talk to women about PPD, the effects it can have, and inform women of who they can talk to get help. A change in healthcare for mothers would be nice too. While its great to see the baby growing and reaching milestones at checkups, we need to have wellness checkups for mothers as well. Six weeks is not enough time to see if a mother is mentally fine in her new role as a mother. The major misconception is that PPD occurs very early after giving birth, but it can occur upto a year after giving birth. Another misconception is that if a woman has PPD, that she is suicidal and her baby is at risk. With such a scary description for PPD and how it is portrayed in the media (along with the misconception of PPD being postpartum psychosis), we honestly need to have support systems in place for new mother.

KP

http://preventdisease.com/news/articles/midwife_depression.shtml