Depression

Postpartum depression (PPD) is also often called Postnatal depression; Postpartum depression is considered as a clinical depression. This depression affects women right after childbirth. Postpartum depression is often related to Postpartum exhaustion which is often caused by lack of sleep and loss of blood during the delivery.

Women can prevent postpartum depression by being aware of its symptoms. Some of the symptoms of Postpartum depression are generally being sad or down, having very low self-esteem, easily feeling guilt, suddenly being anti-social, and easily getting tired, in more severe cases the new mothers don’t even have the energy to take care of the baby and sometimes even feel the desire to hurt the baby or herself.

Aside from the symptoms of Postpartum depression that can help in preventing women from acquiring this disorder, there are already formulated reasons or causes why many women are suffering from this disorder. Some of the listed possible reasons for the development of postpartum depression are as follows: when a mother uses a formula feeding milk rather than breast milk for feeding her baby, if the mother has a history of depression or if she has a family history of postpartum depression, if the mother smokes, if the mother is overly-stressed by taking care of the baby, and if the mother has developed a low-self esteem through the course of the pregnancy.

These are not the only factors that researchers have found out about Postpartum depression. Thay have also found out that other social factors such as sexual orientaton or social class  can also be a postpartum depression risk factors, and according to this one particular research, the women who mostly suffer postpartum depression in America are African American. In addition to this, the researchers also found out that women who have more resources in the financial aspect are less at risk to postpartum depression as compared to those who struggle financial difficulies. It can be explined by  the stress that women belonging to the lower classes are experiencing in their everyday lives. In the sexual orientation aspect, it was found out that mothers who are lesbians and bisexuals have higher Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and thus, are more at risk to postpartum depression as compared to the heterosexual women. It was stated that this is probably due to the fact that lesbian and bisexual mothers encounter more stress in their lives because of the possible lack of support from their families and friends. Another possibility that the researchers are looking at is the additional stress brought about by the discrimination that they are getting from the society in general which can also lead to postpartum depression.

From all the facts given about postpartum depression, a general risk factor is very glaring and that is stress. It is true that no one knows who will be affected by  postpartum depression but one can always be prepared and equipped with all the information that he/she needs in order to overcome stress in their lives. Sometimes it is all up to the person if he/she will let himself/herself be affected by all the stress in their surroundings. This is the very practical way that a woman can protect herself from postpartum depression.