Some of us may have this mentality that makes us think that mental illness is not real or it is just in our mind. Even the mothers are having mental illness. Never heard of postpartum depression? It is one of the most common mental illness for mothers who just delivered their baby. Truth be told that mental illness is real and legit. We need to get rid of this type of stigma in us.
Everyone suffers differently despite looking confident and strong. We get through things in life that are meant for us to learn more about life. At times these things in life make us fall into mental illness episodes such as anxiety, depression, panic attack, and many more. If things get serious we need to seek a psychologist or even a psychiatric regarding the matter, especially for things that relate to our mental care. We can’t just ignore it as things could get out of mind if not getting the right care.
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What is Postpartum Depression?
Postpartum Depression is a condition where the mother suddenly goes into changes after giving birth. These changes are in terms of their behavioural, emotionally and physically. The first 4 weeks after giving birth is the time where the depression episode usually occurs. This major depressive episode is diagnosed on its severity and it can be treated with counselling and medication.
They need understanding, love, care and support from their loved ones. Mother’s will feel at ease this way. Getting through this depressive episode isn’t easy, no matter what type of depressive disorder or episode it is.
What to do?
If you are experiencing this what you need to do is:
- Build a strong bond with your baby – This help to soothing the baby more as the baby will feel more secure with the mother. (eg: massaging the baby, skin to skin contact)
- Take care of yourself more – There’s no excuse for you to not take care of yourself just cause you have the little one with you. This ensures that you also have time for yourself. (eg: healthy diet, nap with the baby, pamper yourself)
- Exercise – Slowly try to get yourself into exercising even just for 15 minutes to 30 minutes. It helps.
- Build your support network – It will help you cope with the depression better as you have your support system with you. It is always nice to have someone to share and anyone who is able to relate
- Try to seek help from professional – Seeking help from the psychologist or psychiatric does not consider as something that is wrong to do, if you feel as if seeing them may make you look like you mentally ill. This is just to prevent it from getting worse.
Taking care of your newborn isn’t something that is very simple as some would think. It takes a lot of patience to do so and not many can handle that. We heard a lot of cases due to lack of contact with the baby, some mother’s experiencing postpartum depression have the tendency to do things out of their control or realization all cause of lack of energy, which could lead to stress that could turn into a major depressive episode.
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