Baby blues: know what postpartum sadness is – 12/06/2023 – Equilíbrio

During almost the entire pregnancy, Fernanda felt radiant. After three years of trying, she managed to get pregnant thanks to assisted fertility treatment and was happily awaiting the arrival of her first child with her partner.

But a few days after giving birth, in the midst of the Covid pandemic in 2020, uncontrollable anguish began to flood her, taking her by surprise.

“It would come around 6pm or 7pm and I would feel an anguish that would tighten my chest. A lump would form in my throat and I would start crying non-stop,” he tells BBC Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish-language service.

“I remember one time a very dear friend of mine came to see me and I cried from 3 pm to 10 pm with her. It was atrocious,” she says with her eyes wide open, vividly remembering her experience, which left her traumatized.

“I’m a cheerful person who doesn’t complicate things too much and I’ve never had big mood swings in my life, so I couldn’t understand why I was crying like that, or why I couldn’t eat, didn’t want to shower or do anything,” says the Chilean mother living in London.

“The only things I wanted was for my husband to cuddle me, for the baby not to cry, and to get out of there.”

What Fernanda found out later is that what happened to her was something very frequent after giving birth, known as baby blues or postpartum blues.

Symptoms

Postpartum sadness is “an alteration or change in mood that occurs in women around the second or third day after childbirth, can last between two and three weeks, and spontaneously regresses”, explains perinatal psychologist Jazmín Mirelman.

Although in terms of symptoms it is not very different from postpartum depression, they differ enormously “in terms of severity and duration”, he clarifies.

The main manifestations of this mood disorder are sadness, irritability and emotional instability or easy crying. It can also be accompanied by difficulty sleeping, hypersensitivity and anxiety.

These mood fluctuations, however, do not produce the substantial changes in self-esteem that characterize postpartum depression.

like the baby blues is milder and more fluctuating than postpartum depression, the mother who suffers from it “can still have fun, enjoy or disconnect,” says Teresa Bobes Bascarán, an expert in clinical psychology at the University of Oviedo in Spain.

In postpartum depression, by contrast, the mother may actively seek to avoid contact with other people, have difficulty concentrating and making decisions, question her ability to care for herself and the baby, and have frightening thoughts, such as the idea of hurt the baby, as explained on the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) page.

Furthermore, unlike the baby blueswhich occurs in the first few days after childbirth, postpartum depression can occur up to a year after birth.

Statistics vary, but experts estimate that as many as 85% of women experience postpartum blues, compared to the 10% to 20% who experience postpartum depression.

‘Perfect Storm’

When analyzing the causes, Bobes Bascarán describes the baby blues as the perfect storm, “because there is not a single factor that predisposes to develop this state of malaise, but rather a confluence of factors”.

For starters, there are abrupt hormonal changes that happen not only after childbirth, but also during pregnancy and childbirth itself, which occur to welcome the baby.

Changes in the mother’s brain also influence mood.

“There are magnetic resonance studies that show the pruning of neural connections that are not functional for the creation of the baby, to facilitate those connections that are (and that will be activated) to make us aware of the baby’s needs, to the detriment of other functions that no longer exist. are so important for their education)”, explains Bobes Bascarán.

Add to this all the contextual factors such as work, economic, family situation, etc.

Another element that can contribute to the feeling of anguish are “the changes that occur in all the mother’s interpersonal relationships from the moment she leaves the hospital with a baby in her arms”, explains Mirelman, in addition to the enormous responsibility of bringing a life to the world and take care of supporting it, as Fernanda reports.

“In my life, everything ended at 8 pm and then everything relaxed. I was distressed by the fact that, with a baby, this did not happen, I had to be with him all the time, and the day never ended: he got irritated at 8 am, and 10 pm, and midnight, and 2 am,” she says.

“Being in charge of a baby and my task being its survival, I was very stressed”, he adds.

To all this, we must add the idealization and expectations that exist around childbirth, agree Bobes Bascarán and Mirelman, represented as a wonderful and happy situation, in which the mother must feel fulfilled and fulfilled, when in reality she is going through a moment delicate, which requires a period of adaptation.

Risk factors

Although it affects the vast majority of women, there are some factors that can make a mother more prone to baby blues.

This is the case for women who have dealt with mood swings or depressive disorders in the past, or women who “have been through a difficult pregnancy, with anxiety, with some discomfort for whatever reason,” says Mirelman, as well as those who have suffered previous perinatal losses.

New mothers also tend to arrive at childbirth with greater anxiety, as do women who have been victims of obstetric violence in a previous birth, notes Bobes.

However, none of these factors is decisive.

“Many women may have gone through these experiences and go through the postpartum period more calmly, without so much instability”, clarifies Mirelman.

What to do?

In principle, since it is not a psychological disorder, it is not necessary to resort to treatment.

And, as we mentioned earlier, these feelings of anguish and melancholy often disappear on their own after a few weeks, as the mother adjusts to her new routine with the newborn.

Even so, it is important to keep in mind that the context can favor or hinder the postpartum experience.

In this sense, Mirelman emphasizes the importance of “supporting women who are in a moment of great vulnerability, convalescing after the experience of childbirth and with great responsibility in their arms, both psychologically and emotionally, and on a more practical level, in everything related to to daily care tasks with food and rest”.

And, of course, it is important to validate the woman’s experience, and avoid negative comments such as “you should be happy, you have a healthy child”, which are linked to society’s idealization of motherhood, and do nothing more than overload the woman burdened with guilt.

In short, the best thing to do is “follow her, listen to her and, above all, not judge her”, says Bobes Bascarán.

If the mood swings last for more than three weeks, it is advisable to consult a health professional, as there is a possibility that the woman is experiencing postpartum depression and, in this case, it is important to treat it, because if it is not, “there is a risk of developing chronic depression”, says Bobes Bascarán.

Treatment for postpartum depression may include psychotherapy, antidepressants, and specific medications to treat extreme anxiety or short-term insomnia.

In Fernanda’s case, the baby blues it lasted a little longer than usual, although it didn’t get worse: “As it came, after a month, a month and a half, it passed”, she says. And she reflects that she wishes she had more information about it.

For the arrival of the second child, she was already more prepared, but fortunately, she says, “this time it didn’t happen”.

This text was published here