Early signs of postpartum depression

This is an automatically translated article.

The article was professionally consulted by Doctor Nguyen Thi Hong On - Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology - Vinmec Phu Quoc International General Hospital. The doctor has 10 years of experience in Obstetrics and Gynecology and has worked in all positions in the clinic area, delivery room, emergency room for obstetrics and gynecology, procedure room and treatment area on request.
According to statistics, the rate of women with postpartum depression currently accounts for about 15% in the first 3 months and 25% within 12 months after giving birth. This is a very common and dangerous illness, and patients can experience mild, moderate or severe depression, transient or long-lasting, leading to negative actions for themselves.

1. What is postpartum depression?

Basically, postpartum depression is a condition in which a woman is emotionally disturbed, or has negative thoughts, fatigue, boredom and worries about many issues in life. This disease can be mild, moderate or severe, self-healing or even will not go away on its own without timely intervention.
According to psychologists, after giving birth, a woman's body often has sudden hormonal changes, which can easily lead to feelings of fatigue and depression. In addition, blood volume, immune system, blood pressure and metabolism also change at this time, leading to emotional instability. The early signs of postpartum depression often go unnoticed by the family, and it's only with painful consequences that people think twice about the warning signs of the illness.
Postpartum depression will become more serious if, after giving birth, the mother has difficulty in taking care of the baby, but the family has irrevocable conflicts or financial difficulties.. Especially, if someone in the family has had depression, the woman after giving birth is also at greater risk of depression.

2. How does postpartum depression affect health and life?

Currently, many people still underestimate postpartum depression, only when they really experience it do they understand how this disease has a terrible impact on health and life.
For the mother herself, postpartum depression can make the mother malnourished, lose weight, have nervous breakdowns, have paranoid thoughts, and easily lead to dangerous behavior and self-harm. Dear.
When having postpartum depression, the mother will not have enough mind to take care of the family and the newborn baby well, so the family will not be happy. In particular, when severe depression, mothers often have suicidal thoughts, some people have mental disorders and always have a feeling of being harmed, so they always find ways to take revenge or deal with people who want to get close to them. . There are even mothers who think their children are possessed by demons, so they seek to exorcise evil spirits and harm the baby's life. In fact, there are many heartbreaking cases that happen when women suffer from postpartum depression.

3. Causes of postpartum depression

Some objective and subjective causes leading to postpartum depression in women are:
Due to hormonal changes: After giving birth, a woman's body will have a sudden decrease in estrogen and progestrogen. , in addition, thyroid hormones also decrease rapidly, causing feelings of fatigue and depression; Due to changes in blood volume, immune system, blood pressure and metabolism in the body; Due to family conflicts, financial problems or not having the help of loved ones; Due to many difficulties in taking care of the baby, since then, I feel that I have lost interest in living and cannot control my own life; Due to heredity.

4. Early signs of postpartum depression

Postpartum depression is often not detected until the patient has acted foolishly, affecting their own health. Therefore, recognizing the early signs of postpartum depression is a way to protect yourself from the negative effects of depression.
Some symptoms of postpartum depression include:
Body weakness: In fact, many mothers after giving birth immediately fall into a state of hopelessness, suffering and even crying all day without giving birth. without any reason at all. Sometimes, they themselves feel that they are not cared for, abandoned by everyone, this feeling will make the body constantly tired and weak. This is the first sign of postpartum depression.
Anxiety, unexplained body pain: After giving birth, mothers often have many worries about themselves, their families and children, many people feel severe pain in the neck and head, back, chest but when examined Couldn't find the cause.
Panic: Women with postpartum depression often feel panic with things that can happen every day, after panic, it is difficult for them to calm down. The best way in this case is to avoid letting those situations happen again and again.
Stress: Regular signs of stress will make depression worse. This type of stress is an early sign of postpartum depression and cannot be treated with sedation, however, switching to some other less dependent form of medication is fine.
Feelings of obsession: Mothers who suffer from postpartum depression often become obsessed with a particular thing, person or action. Obsessions can be accompanied by guilt for no apparent reason. In this case, the mother should talk to her family and doctor to avoid having bad actions for her child.
Loss of concentration: Loss of concentration is also a symptom of postpartum depression that is easily overlooked, at this time, the patient will often find it difficult to concentrate to do something and feel that his memory is too poor, and sometimes I can't organize my thoughts. Gradually they feel very bad about themselves.
Sleep disorders: Often people with depression often have a hard time falling asleep and often wake up in the middle of the night or sometimes have nightmares and can't go back to sleep. In this case, in addition to active treatment, it is best to have someone help the mother breastfeed the baby at night.
Sex: Mothers who suffer from postpartum depression often experience a long-term loss of sexual interest and usually get better if the mother clears the depression.
In addition, some common psychological signs in people with postpartum depression are easy to see such as:
Change in appetite and weight gain or loss; Insomnia or sleeping too much; Sad mood; Feeling worthless or guilty; Difficulty concentrating or indecisiveness; Reduced interest in activities; Thinking, acting, reacting slowly; Fatigue, lack of energy; Often thinking about death and suicide.

5. How to treat postpartum depression?

Postpartum depression, if in a temporary stage, the help of the family is the way for the mother to quickly recover. In addition, it is also important to make sure that the mother with postpartum depression is treated by a doctor, however, if the prescription is not appropriate, the prescription may need to be changed to improve the effectiveness of treatment.
Let's have normal behavior with people with postpartum depression, don't treat them as sick and help them take care of the baby so they can get plenty of rest and do what they feel like.
Besides taking medication to treat postpartum depression, it is equally important to maintain a good diet, vitamin B6 or multivitamin in the daily diet. In addition, patients can also be treated by looking to psychologists to have comfortable conversations and express their feelings.
To get the best treatment results, people with postpartum depression themselves need to believe they will get better, be patient and trust the doctor's treatment methods. Relax and forget the pain, don't force yourself to do things you don't like or that make you uncomfortable, the depression will go away quickly.

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