Mommy of Many Show #33: Talking With Dr. Jim about Postpartum Depression and the Baby Blues
By mommy of many™. Filed in Podcast, baby, children, kids, mom, sharing |Tags: baby, children, kids, mom, Mommy of Many, mommyofmany, MommyofMany.com, Podcast, sharing
This week’s show is sponsored by Aveeno Baby!
I had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Jim from Healthbuzz about the difference between Postpartum Depression and the Baby Blues. After each of my kids I’ve felt a difference is emotions and the intensity of how I react to certain situations. I always felt that I must have been experiencing Postpartum Depression but was confused by the label and what I thought the definition of that was. I felt very timid about talking about it because I didn’t want people to think I wasn’t connecting with my baby or that I couldn’t care for my children. Now that Luke-Xavier is two years old and I’m well past the stage of feeling like anything is wrong, I decided to ask some questions and found out that my feelings were very normal and were considered the “Baby Blues” and not Postpartum depression. I hope this show offers some clarification to the line between what’s normal and what might be the signs of something more serious.
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Monday, June 9th 2008 at 1:35 am |
I think it’s great that you’ve talked about this! I had post partum depression after Coby (our first) was born. It was a result of a terrible labor and delivery experience and a complete failure to breastfeed. I felt terribly guilty and like a failure as a mom. I spent a lot of time in tears and had Clint stay home some days bc I would sit in bed and cry- utterly overwhelmed by everything. I refused to get help bc I didn’t want to be medicated. For us, getting pregnant 6 months later with Tate was a huge blessing. The moment I pushed Tate into this world all of my 15 months of misery and ppd vanished in that instant. Having a beautiful, natural, unmedicated child birth with a supportive doula and being able to breastfeed healed all that had gone wrong with Coby’s labor and delivery. It was wonderful. There are so many things that can cause PPD, but I think birth experiences must be high on the list.
After Tate and Jake’s births, I felt much better, but I experienced what you mentioned about being edgy, short on patience, and just plain old exhausted. Not so much baby blues for me I guess, but just being overly tired and what goes along with that. Plus, for me, hearing an infant cry drives me bonkers. My nerves fray like crazy. I’ve never been able to let a baby cry or cry it out to sleep or anything. So, if the baby’s crying and the boys are arguing over a toy or being loud or had an accident (like pee/ poop kind of thing), I get so overwhelmed in that moment and have a hard time not snapping at the older boys, but I’ve recognized that about me and try to stay calm even when everything seems crazy for a few minutes! I’d say a year is about right; once the baby is walking and a little more independent, life does get smoother
Tuesday, June 10th 2008 at 7:12 am |
I have dealt with depression for a LOT of years…something like 20 years of depression…so PPD was just an extension of my already miserable life.
Thank you for sharing this program because it IS important for us to be able to talk about depression and recognize that we’re not alone.