Postpartum Depression - Symptoms and Treatment of Postpartum Depression

It's hard to believe, but motherhood is not always rightis only joy, and some of the young mother, after the birth of the baby, feeling miserable and powerless.

The fault is their emotional state. How postpartum depression manifests, what are its main symptoms and how to help a woman get out of this condition, this article will tell.

Postpartum depression what it is and how it manifests

The birth of a long-awaited baby is a joyful and exciting event that the whole family is looking forward to. It would seem, becoming a mother, a woman should be happy and experience only happy and positive emotions. Euphoria does not last long, it is replaced by the everyday life of a young mother with sleepless nights, troubles, problems and unrest about the health of the newborn.

The newly mummy tries to fulfill all the new responsibilities for caring for the child, getting used to its new role. But not all women manage to easily adapt to a new life. Instead of the joy of motherhood, a woman feels apathy, fatigue, tearfulness, resentment, indifference to the baby and to life in general, sharp mood swings, in some cases aggression, irritability.

If this condition is prolonged in women and is observed more than 2-3 weeks after childbirth, it is likely that she had the first signs and symptoms of postpartum depression - an emotional disorder that occurs in the postpartum period.

Symptoms and signs of postpartum depression

The main symptoms are:

1. A young mummy feels depressed, she thinks that life is uninteresting and meaningless, she wants to cry for anything. Oppressed mood can be expressed in the morning or evening hours.

2. A woman can not concentrate on the simplest everyday things. Sometimes she forgets to do something, becomes scattered, her thoughts are far away.

3. There is a feeling of guilt before the child, the husband, the family. It seems to her that she is a bad mother, a wife who can not cope with her duties.

4. Feeling of impotence. A woman is hard to get out of bed, doing physical work around the house, taking care of a newborn.

5. Loss of appetite, sometimes it forgets whether she took food today. Sometimes there is an aversion to food.

6. Insomnia

Causes of postpartum depression in women

The main cause of postpartum depression is the hormonal changes that occur in the body after the birth of a child. There is a sharp reduction in the production of pregnancy hormones: progesterone and estrogen, which affects the psychological state of women.

In addition, the stress and pain that had to be borne to her during childbirth, also affect her emotional state. On 's young mother, a huge number of new, unfamiliar duties "falls on", the appearance of a newborn in the house brings financial and domestic problems to the family, which the woman is physically and morally difficult to cope with, especially if there is no help and support from her husband and relatives.

All of these causes can cause a woman to have a mild or severe form of postpartum depression, which can develop into a psychological illness requiring treatment with antidepressants.

Treatment of Postpartum Depression

Treatment of depends on the severity of the disease. From spleen or fatigue, you can get rid of yourself, and a severe form of the disease will require the advice of a psychotherapist and you can not do without taking medications. How long is postpartum depression and how to get rid of it?

How to deal with postpartum depression - help and prevention

A woman suffering from depression needs support and help from her husband, relatives or friends. Independently it is difficult for her to get out of this condition, and it can drag on for a long time, "developing" into a more serious degree of the disease.

The task of the husband is to unload the wife from some duties, give her time to get used to the role of mom. The ideal option is to organize a young mother for a day off and fully take care of the baby for herself, and allow her mother to take care of herself on that day: to have a good sleep, to have a moral rest alone, to get well, or to meet with a girlfriend or simply change the situation by going outfrom home.

In order to prevent , it is necessary to prepare the spouse in advance for the fact that he must also take an active part in caring for the baby. You can negotiate with your mother, a friend about help in the first month, for example, take a few hours of the baby for a walk.

How to cope with postpartum depression at home

At the onset of the disease, a woman can handle herself with her condition at home. What to do and how to deal with the symptoms :

1. More rest. Sleep during the day with the child, even a small rest helps to restore strength.

2. Do only feasible work. To hard everyday work connect family, husband, do not try to remake several cases at once.

3. Observe the day mode.

4. Effective exercise, even easy charging will lift the mood and lead to tonus.

5. It is useful to carry out aromatherapy with essential oils: bergamot, geranium, melissa, jasmine, mandarin and grapefruit oil, which excellently affect the psychological and emotional state, reduce anxiety, irritability and nervousness.

Late postpartum depression - symptoms and treatment

A depressive condition that does not go away after 2-4 weeks after childbirth, goes to the stage of late depression, which will require serious psychological help or even hospitalization of the patient.

Symptoms of late postpartum depression in women are:

• insomnia
• inadequate behavior
• visual
• auditory hallucinations
• susceptibility to suicide, etc.

If sedatives, medicinal herbs, rest and help of loved ones help at an early stage, then with severeform will require treatment with drugs such as Adaptol, Prozac, Fluquotesin. At the time of taking medications, the baby is transferred to artificial feeding.

Postpartum depression in men

There are cases that postpartum depression affects not only women but also men. Some simply can not stand constant hysterics, change of mood of the wife and leave the family, even more "driving" the young mother into a depressed state.

The first signs of the that a man also experiences post-lazy depression and nervous tension are frequent delays at work, the appearance of business trips, he tries to appear at home as rarely as possible, some abuse alcohol, become aggressive, behavior changes.

How long can this state last? There is no unequivocal answer, every person has a disease that is manifested individually. A man also needs psychological help and treatment to save his family.