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Your Postpartum Image
How to Love the "New" You
By Katherine Bontrager
Margaret Howard, a clinical psychologist and director of the Postpartum Depression Day Program at Women and Infants' Hospital in Providence, R.I., offers the following warning signs which may indicate postpartum depression (PPD). She says if you experience any of the following emotions that fail to go away, consume you and inhibit day-to-day functionality, it could indicate PPD and requires professional consultation:
- Pervasive sadness;
- Lethargy;
- Feelings of inadequacy/worthlessness/guilt;
- Inability to sleep (even when the baby sleeps), or conversely but less common, sleeping excessively;
- Losing one's appetite, or conversely, eating excessively;
- Frequent crying spells, anxiety, intrusive thoughts of something harmful happening to the baby or irritability (oftentimes manifested with other family members/children);
- Poor concentration, difficulty making decisions, loss of energy, lack of motivation or initiative;
- Absence of feelings toward the baby or difficulty feeling attached or bonded with the baby;
- Lack of pleasure in activities that are normally pleasurable or social withdrawal;
- Thoughts of death, dying or suicide.
Risk factors for PPD include prior history of PPD or depression at any other time in a woman's life, anxiety or depression symptoms during pregnancy, a family history of depression or other mood disorder, poor marital relationship and limited social support.
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