Postpartum Depression

Depression that occurs during the period of pregnancy or within one year after the delivery is known as postpartum depression. This condition is one of the main complications of pregnancy. Our article today is to inform you about this condition so that the women who are going through the pregnancy or have been within a year of their delivery can learn the different aspects of postpartum depression.

Now as we know as to what postpartum depression is, we must now know as to what are the different reasons that cause this depression. There are a lot of factors that lead to postpartum depression, which includes anxiety regarding the concerns for the health of the baby, little or no support from family and friends, excessive workloads. There could be a bout of severe depression if the individual has gone through problems with previous pregnancy, financial problems, marital issues, pregnancy at young age etc.

All these factors lead to excessive bouts of depression and can affect the health of both the mother and the child and thus can complicate the pregnancy. Apart from all the reasons mentioned above, doctors state that during pregnancy, the women have very high levels of estrogen and progesterone and when the women have given child to birth, the levels of these hormones rapidly turn back to normal and the sudden drop of these hormones to reach the normal levels make the women go through the bouts of depression.

The doctors also state that after giving birth, the levels of the thyroid hormones also drop very rapidly and then decreased levels of thyroid hormones cause depressed mood.

Some other factors that cause depression after birth are decreased sleep, doubts of being inability to take care of the child, thoughts about whether she will be a good mother or not, thoughts about whether the figure would ever be regained or not. All of the symptoms mentioned above leads to excessive crying episodes, feeling a whole lot irritable, trouble focusing on things, a feeling of being worthless, emotional lability etc.

It is being seen that women normally do not discuss about postpartum depression because they feel that it would be perceived in a very odd way and no one will understand them and due to the fact, they do not discuss anything about what they are going through. When you feel that you are going through the symptoms that are mentioned above, you must share your thoughts with your doctor and ask for their help. You can also sought help through a counselor and can attend group sessions where different women who are pregnant are attending a group meeting and discussing the different things that they are going through, which will give you strength and will help you get out of the depression problems you are going through.