What Is Postpartum Depression? Symptoms And Ways To Deal With It

^{The consequences of postpartum depression are significantly disturbing}

In clinical practice, doubts of "how I will handle the child" to "I am a bad person and don't deserve to be a mother" have often been expressed by patients of depression in puerperium. The situation causes disturbance in parent-child bonding which is important for healthy development of babies. Sometimes, women are blamed for feeling sad, anxious and emotional and family support is actually withdrawn with a belief that if she is left alone with the child, she will learn to deal with it herself, which can overwhelm an otherwise poorly coping psychological state causing sense of helplessness and even suicide.

How To Deal With Postpartum Depression

It is thus important to identify and address the issue right at the beginning. Obstetricians have a major role to play in initial screening during pregnancy as vulnerabilities are highly associated with perinatal psychiatric complaints. Patients indirectly talk about their problems to their doctors and paediatricians and need to be heard carefully instead of downplaying every emotional issue as natural outcome of pregnancy.

Psychological counselling can be started in perinatal women with difficult or complicated conception, especially those who have had miscarriages, or several cycles of IVF to conceive or have struggled with depressive tendencies in past. Similarly, single mothers, history of domestic violence and abuse, working women with no social support for child rearing, certain isolating practices in postnatal period and poor physical health impair stress coping abilities causing higher risk of mood symptoms.

(Also read: How To Prevent Depression During Coronavirus Quarantine)

^{Psychological counselling can be started in perinatal women}

The management of postpartum depression requires proper assessment and timely intervention. The stigma associated with psychiatric diagnosis, and family's reluctance to address the issue due to fear of harming the child delays the process. Awareness of mental health issues is thus of paramount importance to identify and deal with it. Safe and effective treatment options are available to treat women with these problems which not only improve outcomes for suffering patients but also for the children by improving mother child bonding which has positive effect on child's physical health and immune system.

About the author: Dr. Jyoti Kapoor Madan is a well renowned Psychiatrist in Delhi- NCR. With over 15 years of experience, Dr. Jyoti had worked as a Psychiatry Consultant, Researcher and Psychotherapist in her tenure with famous hospitals. She is currently a Psychiatrist at Paras Hospital, Gurugram.

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