Solutions for Postpartum Depression

a staggering twenty percent of mothers
are affected by postpartum depression hi
I’m Christine and today watchmojo.com is
helping to break the silence with author
dr. arielle dolphin your new book when
baby brings the blues talks about
postpartum depression can you tell us a
little bit about what postpartum
depression is what are some of the
symptoms postpartum depression is an
illness that affects about fifteen to
twenty percent of new moms throughout
the first year but more commonly it
happens within the first month to three
months some of the major symptoms are
feeling really down some people describe
it as feeling like there’s a veil over
them or feeling like they’re in a black
hole or feeling just really really
desperate and really dismal women often
feel like they’re not able to enjoy
anything in their life they’re not able
to connect with their baby and they’re
not able to to get any joy from
something such as their baby that
they’ve long for and hope for even
though a new mom is usually totally
exhausted and spent she just feels too
agitated and too wound up and too badly
to really sleep well so sleep problems
are a prominent sign and then the more
serious forms of postpartum depression
women may have thoughts about wanting to
harm themselves or take their life or
thoughts about wanting to harm their
their babies what are some of the risk
factors for getting a postpartum
depression well the major risk factors
are having a depression history so
either being depressed during pregnancy
or having a personal history of
depression or a history of postpartum
depression itself other risks include
having a strong family history of a
mental illness depression anxiety
schizophrenia bipolar disorder or even
postpartum depression other risk factors
include having other kinds of medical
problems such as having thyroid problems
or low are and sometimes those things
can can look like postpartum depression
and might mimic postpartum depression
then there also what we call
psychological risk factors people who
have certain personality types where
their perfectionistic or a high need for
control or worry a lot are also at risk
and then we get into the final category
of risk factors which we call social
risk factors so that might include
having major life changes in the world
around you in your particular world at
the same time that you have a baby what
are some of the treatments
to help somebody who has postpartum
depression whenever and seeing someone
who has postpartum depression we go
through sort of three layers of
treatments and the first things that I
think are really important to emphasize
are the things that someone can do on
their own or do at home so that means
looking at how you get better sleep
working on your support network looking
at who’s in your life who can help me if
you’re in the fortunate position of
having a little bit of extra money on
hand who can I hire to make this better
whether it’s a night nurse or someone to
help clean out then we get into the
category of professional help talk
therapy psychotherapy and then there’s
the treatment of medication there are a
lot of medications that are very safe
and very effective for treating those
partum depression