Life changes dramatically with the advent of a new child. While it is understandable that stress levels may be high and negative emotions common during the adjustment to being on call 24 hours a day, new mothers typically hide these feelings from friends and family members. They mistakenly believe that grateful, loving thoughts and emotions are the only appropriate ones to admit to when dealing with the challenges of new motherhood.
Many new moms fear they will be thought of as unfit mothers if other people knew the truth about their feelings. They may never ask for help because they don’t have a baseline sense of what is actually normal and what’s not.
To help set the record straight, let’s take a look at some symptoms common in new mothers. Fatigue, mood swings, persistent tearfulness, irritability, forgetfulness, anxiety, difficulty concentrating are all perfectly normal within 48 hours after delivering a baby. People typically refer to this experience as the “baby blues.” Although the majority of women have to cope with baby blues, the symptoms tend to resolve on their own within two weeks. This is the time it typically takes for a new mother’s body to adjust to the stress of delivery and stabilize the massive fluctuations in hormone levels following the birth of a child.
Sometimes the symptoms continue after the two week “baby blues” time frame, and are accompanied by additional challenges. Somewhere between 10% to 17% of new mothers may experience postpartum depression. They have to cope with all the previous symptoms plus feelings of vulnerability, depression, low self-esteem, hopelessness, decreased levels of daily functioning and severe mood swings. These women have a difficult journey, but they are not crazy.
What if the level of intensity is ramped up? What if a new mom has unreasonable fears, panic attacks, obsessions about cleanliness and germs, or visions of something bad happening to the baby and not being able to do anything about it? This may indicate postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder, a bit more severe than postpartum depression, but still in the postpartum mood disorder continuum, and still sane.
If we’re questioning sanity, what about the sensationalized news stories covering women who think their babies are demonic? What is going on if a new mother hears voices “forcing” them to hurt their babies or themselves?
This is the most severe end of the postpartum mood disorder spectrum, and where the break in sanity occurs. Fortunately, only 1 or 2 out of every thousand postpartum women will go through this disorder. Women with postpartum psychosis experience dangerious delusions, often in conjunction with visual and auditory hallucinations. They require immediate hospitalization in order to receive the necessary medical attention, and are not safe to care for their babies until the disorder is properly treated.
Here’s a helpful way to assess the situation: If a new mother has the presence of mind to be concerned about her thoughts and emotions, if she is worried about the well being of herself and her child, she is quite likely sane. All the symptoms you’ve just read about are absolutely treatable. Let’s remove the stigma from postpartum mood disorders and encourage new moms to be honest about their experiences. Help is available now.
