Postnatal depression.

Please visit Daphne's blog to read this write up. Its a great posting.

A while back i visited Daphne's blog and read this posting on postnatal depression. It is really an eye opener for me. I have heard of it and have seen it in movies but do not really comprehand the seriousness of it until i read her post.


This one is from wikipedia.

Postnatal Depression (also called Postpartum Depression and referred throughout this article by the acronym PPD) is a form of clinical depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, after childbirth. Studies report prevalence rates among women from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual prevalence rate unclear.[1]

Baby or maternity blues are a mild and transitory moodiness suffered by up to 80% of postnatal women (and in some cases fathers who also suffer from the baby blues and/or postpartum depression). Symptoms typically last from a few hours to several days, and include tearfulness, irritability, hypochondriasis, sleeplessness, impairment of concentration, isolation and headache. The maternity blues are not the same thing as postpartum depression, nor are they a precursor to postpartum depression or postnatal psychosis.

Symptoms of PPD can occur anytime in the first year postpartum[2] and include, but are not limited to, the following:

Sadness[2]
Hopelessness[2]
Low Self-Esteem[2]
Guilt[2]
Sleep Disturbances[2]
Eating Disturbances[2]
Inability to be Comforted[2]
Exhaustion[2]
Emptiness[2]
Inability to Enjoy Things One Previously Enjoyed[2]
Social Withdrawal[2]
Low Energy[2]
Easily Frustrated[2]
Feeling Inadequate in Taking Care of the Baby (or Feeling Like One Cannot Take Care of the Baby) [2]