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Postpartum Depression & Emotional Recovery

Dealing with Postpartum Depression?

Why Getting Help Is a Good Thing for Mom and Baby

Postpartum DepressionAbout a month after Karen Putz's second child was born, she began to realize something wasn't right. Putz, from Bolingbrook, Ill., remembers crying a lot and being incredibly tired. "One afternoon, a friend that I hadn't seen in a long time came to visit and I couldn't even keep my eyes open," says Putz. "I told her I needed to sleep, handed her the baby and just conked out for an hour."

Putz's doctor told her she had the "baby blues." He was wrong. She was suffering from postpartum depression.

If you think you may be suffering from postpartum depression, don't try to fight it alone.

Not Just the Blues

"With postpartum depression, there's an incredible heaviness and everything takes an effort," Putz says. "There's no joy at a time when you should be feeling incredible love for your infant. I remember looking at my daughter's baby pictures a few years later and telling my husband, 'I don't remember how beautiful she was.' It was like looking at someone else's child – that's how detached I was during that time."

Putz's situation is not unusual. According to the American Psychiatric Association, anywhere from 10 to 20 percent of new moms suffer from moderate or severe postpartum depression. And postpartum depression impacts more than mothers. Recent studies show that when parents are depressed, their parenting behaviors may change, potentially leading to negative consequences for Baby, too.


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Dealing with Postpartum Depression?

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Shelley says
September 1, 2009

I didn't realize I had postpartum depression until I was standing over the bassinet thinking that while I couldn't ever do it, I understood how some moms pick up a pillow and smother there child. It was the ugliness of the thought process that sent me into the next room where my mom was folding laundry.

Fortunately, my mom was staying with me and my husband for three weeks after the birth, and I had her to go to talk about scary feelings. She knew it was postartum depresison right away, and she was able to help me get the help I needed.

Talk to somebody. Don't let it go to the next level.

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