Affecting 10 to 20% of new mothers, postpartum depression is far from an isolated disease. It is however little evoked and poorly known. The point on this depression not like the others.
A contextual depression
A contextual depression
Postpartum depression (PLD) is a perinatal depression. It includes a set of mood disorders (varying in intensity depending on the severity of symptoms) occurring in women after the birth of their newborn.
It appears during the first year of delivery, often a few weeks or months after delivery (unlike babyblues that occur in the first days) and can persist until the child is two years old. The postnatal depression rate, however, is higher three months after delivery and then gradually decreases.
NB: prenatal depression is also part of perinatal depressions. It is characterized, like postpartum depression by mood disorders, but, unlike the latter, occurs before delivery.
Symptoms
Postpartum depression is associated in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) with depression. The symptoms presented are the same as those presented during a major depressive episode.
Among them: depressed mood and loss of interest in pleasurable activities, weight loss or gain, insomnia or hypersomnia, hyperactivity or psychomotor retardation, fatigue or decreased energy, feeling of worthlessness or excessive guilt, difficulty concentrating, thoughts of death or ideas
Postpartum depression or babyblues?
Baby blues (or "third day syndrome") occurs in the first few days after delivery. It is due to a hormonal fall with all the physiological changes that it entails while being accentuated by an emotional fragility linked to fatigue and the stress of childbirth.
Characterized by its transitional state, everything returns to normal after a few days or even weeks for the majority of women who are affected, that is to say, almost 80%.
On the other hand, if the symptoms persist and require management, it could be postpartum depression. This is characterized by its permanent state and does not necessarily appear right after delivery.
The causes
Postpartum depression is explained by physiological causes, such as baby blues, but it is mostly related to the emotional context in which the mother evolves.
Risk factors
Several factors can trigger postpartum depression. Whether they are biological (hormonal changes), psychological and / or social, it is precisely their correlation that would make postpartum depression appear.
Pre-existing vulnerability and fragility would favor the onset of postpartum depression. Women who have experienced a depressive episode during their lifetime or during pregnancy are at greater risk than others.
Having a postpartum depression for the first child does not mean that there will be postpartum depression in the second. On the other hand, mothers who had previously given birth without suffering from PPD could still suffer after the birth of their last child.
Feelings of guilt, incompetence, feeling of loss of identity or loss of control caused by sudden or significant changes in life can cause postpartum depression.
Treatments
Adequate treatment must be put in place. If postpartum depression is not treated, symptoms can last up to two years of age.
Treatment with antidepressants will be considered. In case of breastfeeding, tricyclic antidepressants should be favored because their deleterious and toxic effects on the child are very weak or nonexistent.
Estrogen-based hormonal treatments would also help fight postpartum depression, especially if combined with antidepressants.
Psychotherapy, which can be of great help, will also be offered.
What consequences for the child?
On the emotional level, the postpartum depression of the mothers influences the psychoaffective and behavioral development of the child: irritability, anxiety, disorders of attachment to the mother, difficulties to confront the world, delay in learning, sleep disorders .
According to different studies, children whose mothers developed postpartum depression would be of less height and weight in the 9th month, but the size of their amygdala of children would be greater at pre-adolescence. Notably, this difference is similar to that of children who grew up in orphanages.
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