Understanding Postnatal Depression - Part 2

Postnatal depression (postpartum depression) should be treated like every other illness or disease. Knowing or recognising the symptoms of postnatal depression (postpartum depression) might help you avoid depression after childbirth and then you will be able to get help. 

Women get all kinds of different symptoms and it can sometimes be really scary.

Irrational fear 

A lot of times you get scared or you panic for no good reason. Fear creeps into every situation or interaction you have. You fear to be around people. You fear to be alone.You are afraid for your baby. You always want to hide. You get persistent and intruding thoughts that you aren’t okay, that your baby is not okay, and that you aren’t going to make it.

Obsessive thinking

Obsessive thought about yourself, your infant . You try to put everything in schedules as you will normally do but it just isn't working as would do. Your head and begins to race 100 miles an hour and you just want to get your head out of your body. You cannot just function as normal. You do obsessive cleaning , you are ashamed  or thinking you have let everyone down. You are anxious or worried for no good reason. Things begin to get on top of you. You constantly have memory problems, you have trouble focusing or making decisions.

Suicidal feeling

The thought of harming yourself has occurred to you frequently. It might feel like you are unable to cope with the difficulty you are experiencing. Sometimes you feel less like you want to die and more like you cannot go on living the life you have. These feelings may build over time or might fluctuate from time to time. It's common to not understand why you feel this way.  Everyone's experience of suicidal feelings is unique to them.

Losing interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy

You find out that you have lost interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy. You are not able to laugh and see the funny side of things. You do not look forward with enjoyment to things. You constantly feel sad, miserable, restless or moody. 

Fluctuating appetite.

You are either eating little or too much, sleeping little or too much.Sometimes you have infants or kids that sleep for long periods or waking up every hour, then your sleep pattern is not consistent  You might then begin to worry.  

If you have ticked all the symptoms on a list then and they are persistent, it could be postnatal depression definitely need to speak to your doctor and get help. You might be at risk of postnatal depression (postpartum depression). Some women don’t recognise they have postnatal depression (postpartum depression), or they choose to ignore their symptoms because they’re afraid of being seen as a bad mother.

It is important to point that you should not compare yourself to other mothers after childbirth.We’re normally comparing ourselves to what we assume about other people and that get us more depressed. I think the social media like Facebook has a lot to answer for; we don’t share average photos of average days, we share beautiful, radiant, filtered photos of us looking blissfully happy, but nobody is like that all the time. You really shouldn’t feel guilty. You’ve done an amazing job bringing a baby into the world and that little bundle of joy is all you need to concentrate on. 

Don’t complain about your looks. You should be happy and proud that for 9 months your body provided food for your child. Those hips and rippled belly was home to your infant for 9 months So your body might not be the best sight, your stretch mark, your tummy might not be sexy but here is proof (you infant) that you’ve done something amazing.
  

Fathers you had 9 months to prepare for at least 2 weeks time off to take care of your wife the newborn and other children after childbirth. You as the father is also vulnerable to postnatal depression (postpartum depression).

For questions and enquires email: Omobolanle.omisade@gmail.com

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