Hello! In today's video I'm going to be talking to you about baby blues and postpartum depression
so you know what signs and symptoms to look out for, how to differentiate between the two things
and what to do if you're struggling to deal with your thoughts and feelings after you give birth.
If you're new here, welcome! My name's Anja, I'm a hypnobirthing practitioner and mum
to a little girl. On my YouTube channel you'll find educational videos and relaxation audios to
support you through pregnancy, birth and motherhood. So you don't miss my weekly videos, please consider
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Baby blues affects up to 80% of women after they've given birth and it can last 10 to 14
days postpartum. The most common symptoms are feeling emotional, irrational or overwhelmed.
You might also find yourself crying, usually without knowing why, being generally irritable and
moody but also feeling a bit down or anxious. Baby blues is said to be caused by your hormone levels.
After you've given birth, your body experiences a sudden drop in the hormone estrogen
and that can lead you to feeling very emotional, like a bad form of PMS. Also, due to the huge
responsibility that comes with bringing a baby into the world, no matter how positive your birth
experience was or how much love you feel for your baby, getting used to this major life-change
can feel really overwhelming at first. The good news is that baby blues normally disappear within
a couple of weeks however, during this time, it's really important that you rest as much as you can,
that you take things slowly one day at a time and, if you're happy to have visitors around your house,
perhaps they can do something to help you like go shopping, do some cooking or some cleaning
and that just takes any pressure off you so that you can rest and recover after birth and you don't
have to think about all of the household tasks that you need to get done. Postpartum depression,
on the other hand, may initially feel like baby blues but over time you find yourself obsessing
over lots of things, constantly checking on your baby, unable to relax or fall asleep and you may
also find that you're really really anxious and feeling very disconnected from yourself, your baby
and the rest of your family. You may also feel that you're unable to function normally and these
symptoms become very problematic for you and very intrusive. Women who are struggling with postpartum
depression often become very isolated. They stay at home all the time, they're afraid to socialize
with other mums and they may also feel ashamed or worried about communicating how they feel
and talking about their problems. That's why, if you think that you're struggling with postpartum
depression symptoms, that you seek immediate assistance and communicate how you're feeling
with a healthcare professional for the sake of your well-being and your family's well-being.
If you develop postpartum depression, the symptoms will normally occur within the first month after
giving birth. Women I know who have had postpartum depression describe it as constantly worrying
about their babies, worried that something terrible was going to happen, they were constantly crying
and completely unable to shake off a feeling of extreme anxiety, overwhelm and sadness. No one
knows exactly what causes postpartum depression but it can be linked to stress or complications
during pregnancy, complications during childbirth and a history of family depression.
Fortunately, postpartum depression can be treated effectively with psychotherapy, medication,
individual counselling sessions and group therapy sessions with other mums. If you think that
you're experiencing symptoms of postpartum depression, please get in touch with your
healthcare provider asap so that they can step in and guide you towards the best treatment options.
By talking openly about your feelings, you're not only helping yourself and your family,
you're also helping other mothers to speak up about their experiences
and this raises awareness of postpartum depression and the need to develop the best treatment options
to help people that are struggling with this condition. Please, please, please, don't suffer in
silence or try to deal with things all by yourself because postpartum depression can escalate if left
untreated. If you're watching this video and you do think that you have postpartum depression,
don't hesitate to contact your doctor as soon as possible! Thanks so much for watching this
video today, I hope that you found it useful and informative :) If you've got any questions about
postpartum depression, please leave me a message in the comments section beneath this video and
I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can. If you're watching this and you're pregnant, one of
the best possible ways that you can significantly reduce your risk of developing postpartum
depression is to do a hypnobirthing course. Scientific research has shown that hypnobirthing
mums are far less likely to develop postpartum depression because they're so well educated and
prepared for childbirth and when you're well educated and prepared for childbirth, you're far
more likely to have a positive birth experience rather than a negative experience. Negative and
traumatic birth experiences do increase the risk of you developing postpartum depression
so if you would like to sign up to my next free hypnobirthing taster session on zoom and find
out more about hypnobirthing and decide whether it's the right birth preparation method for you,
please click the link to my website in the video description below and you will find
the link to sign up to my next hypnobirthing taster :) Take care and see you in my next video!