Depression: Postpartum

The birth of a baby can be a joyous occasion. However, some women will feel quite down after giving birth. Dr Joe Kosterich talks about postpartum depression, its symptoms and what sets it apart from ‘baby blues’, risk factors, and things you can do to treat baby blues or postpartum depression.

The birth of a baby is of course the arrival of the proverbial “bundle of joy”. People feel happy about it and expect to, and that’s the normal thing and great. However, there are a group of women who despite having delivered this bundle of joy will feel quite down and quite bad.

Postpartum depression is what we’re going to be talking about today.

It’s thought that up to 85% of women will get some baby blues. Baby blues is not the same as postpartum depression. Baby blues is when you feel a bit down, you may feel a bit teary, your hormones are going a bit troppoaround your body, you just feel a bit our of sorts, it’s like you’re not having a particularly good day. These are the normal ups and downs, you may be a bit teary, you may be a little bit sad, you may have a few nights of interrupted sleep – in fact, with the baby, you may have more than that. Those sorts of things. The first few weeks, a month or two, people do have their ups and downs. It’s not the same as postpartum depression.

Postpartum period is defined as the first month after giving birth. However, when we’re talking about postpartum depression we don’t have to draw the line at 30 days, it’s really a depression that will occur within the first few months after giving birth.

There are some risk factors for this and it includes a past history of depression, family history of depression; seems to be a bit more common in women over 40 or in teenagers who have given birth, a little bit more common if people have been using substances or alcohol, and also a little bit more common if the pregnancy has been unplanned or if you, as a woman, are a little bit unsupported in the pregnancy and childbirth.

So what are the symptoms of postpartum depression?

Again, it is about mood swings but they are more severe than just in the baby blues. Women really do get severely down and don’t seem to be enjoying their life. There can be problems in bonding with the baby, there can impact on appetite, there can be fatigue, and this is more than just being a little bit tired because baby’s been crying overnight. There can be real loss of interest in life, can affect one’s engagement with people around you and, as I mentioned before, with baby. So it’s the baby blues but, really, on a much bigger scale.

Now, the first thing people are going to say is: “How do I know whether I got just a little bit of the blues or, really, I might have postpartum depression?” This is where you do need to go along and have a chat with your GP about this, and they’re going to be able to help work out which of those groups you fall into.

If you do have the baby blues then it’s important to understand that you’ll just get over that in time. Now, it’s important to have some support and that may include some counselling from your GP or perhaps from a counsellor, sometimes, again, just chatting with your friends, joining a mother’s group or another self-help group, is probably all that you need to do. And you’ll come good.

For those that do have postpartum depression they may need medication, not everybody will need these but it’s going to be very helpful for a number of women and this is something you do need to talk about with your GP. Again, counselling may well be an important part and some of the things we spoke about before including self-help groups, even chatting in your mother’s group or with friends can be helpful as well. There are other forms of therapy like art therapy and music therapy, which are becoming very popular. And journaling has its support too: getting your feelings down on paper is sometimes an important release. Making sure that you do have some support, have your friends and family around for support can be important. And for those who are a bit isolated, again, this is where self-help groups can be very useful.

The key thing with postpartum depression is, first of all, recognising that it may be an issue, going along and getting yourself checked out. The next step is that something can actually be done about it, you don’t have to sit at home alone just feeling that either: a) it’s just you; or b) nothing can be done. It isn’t just you and plenty can be done.

Now, whilst it does only affect around 10% of women, that’s a significant number so we do emphasise that it isn’t just you, help is at hand. The first step is to go along and see a doctor and see what can be done to assist you on the road back to being the real you.

More information on postnatal depression

Useful resource

The MindSpot Clinic is a free telephone and online service for Australian adults troubled by symptoms of anxiety or depression. The service is run by a team of health professionals and provides free Online Screening Assessments, free Treatment Courses and can assist in finding local services that can help. To speak to one of the team call 1800 614 434 between 8am -8pm AEST Monday to Friday and 8am – 6pm AEST on Saturday or visit MindSpot Clinic.