Lin Thoennes, ARNP

What is Perinatal Mood Disorder
(postpartum depression)?

When we hear about a friend or family member who is expecting a baby, our thoughts are most often about the sweetness and awe of a new baby. It is a positive life event, often celebrated with showers and gifts, congratulations for the expectant father and lots of advice for the expectant mother.

Only recently has public attention been drawn to the difficulties that a new mother may experience with debilitating depression or anxiety. Some form of mood disturbance occurs in as many as one in seven new mothers, either during pregnancy or after birth. Hippocrates described mood changes in women after birth around 400 BC. This is not a new phenomenon, so why is to gaining attention now?

For many years, women who experienced mood disorder and their families kept silent about the struggles they experienced. Mental illness was widely considered a sign of character weakness, hidden and denied outside the family. A new mother was supposed to be happy, blessed with her baby, to instinctively know how to care for her child. And mental illness was poorly understood in the medical community. What is misunderstood is often ignored.

Our understanding of perinatal mood disorders (depression, anxiety, panic, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and bi-polar disorder that occur during pregnancy and the first year after birth) continues to grow, but is far from complete. This period in a woman's life involves physical, hormonal, emotional, social and identity change. Of all women who develop a mood disorder at some time during their lives, 25% will have their first occurrence during this time.

Risk factors for developing a perinatal mood disorder include: a previous prenatal mood illness, personal history or family history of mood disorder, recent loss or trauma, complicated pregnancy or birth, premature birth and having a baby in the intensive care unit, multiple birth (twins, triplets, etc.), marital instability, and lack of social support and help after birth. Yet there will be mothers with none of the known risk factors who develop mood disorder symptoms, and mothers with multiple risk factors who come through this time in good mental health.

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms, you may be experiencing a mood disorder:
Extreme worry or anxiety, fear of being alone with baby
Irritability/ short temper, lack of feeling for the baby,
feeling overwhelmed, unable to sleep, fatigue,
sadness, crying, feelings of guilt, hopelessness
Lack of appetite, difficulty making decisions
persistent, frightening thoughts

Women with perinatal mood disorders respond very well to treatment - they get better. Prompt treatment of depression and anxiety can decrease the length and severity of symptoms, facilitate the mother's attachment to her child, and help her regain her confidence and sense of competence. Without treatment, these illnesses can last a year or more, and severely impact the woman, her family, and particularly her baby's social and cognitive development. Babies need their mothers' smiles, voices, warmth, comforting and attention - it is as important to their physical and mental growth and development as milk.

It is in a mother's best interest to be assessed before symptoms become severe. Please contact my office to schedule an appointment. Partners and family members are welcome to participate as well.

This website is maintained by Postpartum Support International and provides a wealth of good information