- What postpartum depression really looks like.
This is part one of a series that I'm doing,
on women's mental health.
I'm Dr. Tracey Marks a psychiatrist,
and this channel is about mental health, education
and self-improvement.
This video is based on a viewer question
from Dr. Mohammed El-Sherif who's an obstetrician
and gynecologist, with his own YouTube channel.
He wanted me to help his viewers understand
postpartum depression.
Perinatal depression refers to depression,
that occurs before, during, and after pregnancy.
During pregnancy it's called antenatal depression
and anytime within four to six weeks after giving birth,
it's called postpartum depression.
Many more women though, develop baby blues,
which is mostly sadness, irritability and sleeping problems.
But baby blues resolves within the first 10 days.
Postpartum depression has a deeper level of sadness
hopelessness, or worthlessness, and trouble functioning,
that lasts much longer.
The symptoms can last weeks, to month.
For some women this can be the start of a recurring illness
that comes back in the future and lasts for months or years.
The depression that can happen postpartum, generally has
the same symptoms as a depression that's not related
to pregnancy and this would be symptoms like
depressed mood, poor appetite, poor sleep,
and the poor sleep would be trouble sleeping
when your baby is sleeping.
You can also have irritability, decreased appetite
and suicidality.
And these symptoms can show up within the first 72 hours
after you give birth, so it can come on fast.
That's what a typical depression would look like.
But here's a more subtle way,
postpartum depression can look
and this is how it can interfere
with your child's development.
When anyone gets depressed you become more self-focused
and ruminative and that means you over-focus
on the negative thoughts.
These thoughts don't have to be negative things
in your life, it can just be negative thoughts
that you have about yourself or your baby.
And because you're caught up in this negative
dark world in your head, on the outside,
you can have less positive
emotional expression with your baby.
And even if you feel bad and think you can fake it
just by smiling, you really can't do it as well
as you think you can.
Because the emotional expression
that your baby senses from you involves more than smiling.
It's many more non-verbal expressions, like eye contact
and body language.
It takes an incredible amount of emotional resources
to effectively communicate with a non-verbal baby.
And when you're not depressed
and have a normal interaction with your baby,
it's like you're one with your child.
Over time you're able to distinguish between the cry
that means he's sleepy, verus hungry, in pain
or just fussy.
And all those cries and facial expressions are different.
And when you're not depressed you're tuned into it
in a way that you can distinguish all those little noises
from one another and know how to meet your baby's needs.
But when you're depressed and you're caught up
in the negative thoughts in your head,
you're less sensitive to these cues.
You just don't get it.
It's all the same crying to you,
that you're not able to do much about,
which makes you a failure.
It confirms that you're not good at this,
your baby is just trying to make your life miserable,
et cetera.
This depressed state has negative effects on your baby.
It results in poor infant bonding, difficult temperament
and behavior problems.
There's also an increased risk of compromised
cognitive function.
What causes postpartum depression?
We don't know exactly what causes it but some researchers
have proposed though, that it's related to
dropping hormone levels after giving birth.
But there are some things that are associated with
increasing your chances of getting it.
It's estimated that 10 to 20% percent of women
develop postpartum depression, just so you know.
And here are some of the risk factors.
Thyroid dysfunction.
Having a previous episode of depression.
And it's important to note though that,
if you don't have an episode of depression
after your first pregnancy,
it doesn't mean that you're safe
from having another episode in the future,
because another risk factor is having multiple pregnancies.
Also having pre-existing bipolar disorder,
really increases the risk of having
another one of your episodes after giving birth.
So if you have bipolar disorder,
before you get pregnant, you have a 25 to 40% percent chance
of having one of your episodes of depression or mania
appearing after birth.
In fact bipolar disorder increases your risk
of postpartum psychosis and this is a very dangerous state
and usually requires hospitalization to protect you
and your baby from harm.
It's in this state that you can harm your baby,
because you're not thinking rationally.
Some Canadian researchers recently found an association
between asthma and postpartum depression
and it's thought that this connection might be related
to inflammation affecting your asthma
as well as causing your depression.
So postpartum depression doesn't have to come
from a single cause.
It's probably a combination of physical
and emotional factors.
But it doesn't happen because of something you do
or don't do correctly.
Many moms can feel a lot of shame and guilt
because they aren't happy, like people expect you to be.
You've got his precious baby, yet when you look at him,
you don't feel joy, you feel anger.
Or you cry every morning in the shower.
And you can really feel as though somethings wrong
with who you are as a person, instead of realizing
that this an illness affecting how you think.
It's not who you are.
You have a thinking problem.
Taking care of a newborn is hard.
You're sleep deprived and you're probably stressed out.
So how can you tell if you have this problem?
Some women don't realize that something is wrong,
you just figure that this is just how it is.
A popular screening tool is
the Edinburg postnatal depression scale.
It's 10 questions, it takes about five minutes to complete.
It's been used in research studies,
and it's considered a good indicator
of postpartum depression.
And some doctors will use it to screen patients
for depression.
If your doctor doesn't use it,
it's easy to find on the internet
and you can take it yourself.
And the test will even tell you how to score yourself.
If you score high, take the results to your doctor.
How is postpartum depression treated?
Can you take medications while you're breast feeding?
That's what I'm gonna talk about in the next video
which is part two in this series on women's mental health.
So check out the next video.
See you next time.