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The Baby Blues Masquerading as a Perinatal Mood Disorder By Victoria Mikota
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P regnancy , from start to finish, is a massive change for mothers. What begins as a positive pregnancy test, eventually leads to morning sickness, mood swings, cravings, and of course— that beautiful baby bump! All of these things are just a small part of growing a living human and will stay with you up until you give birth. While birth is a wonderful experience, it is an extremely emotional adjustment, so much so, that new mothers may experience a tumultuous time of fluctuating hormones that can unfortunately last long past the postpartum period. A 48-Hour Emotional Rollercoaster Birth requires a tremendous recovery period. Most obviously, the physical challenges of birth are the recovery after vaginal birth or a Caesarean section.
Emotionally, birth is also a great adjustment. At no other point do a woman’s hormones plummet so fiercely as they do in the 48 hours after delivery. When a woman gives birth, because of that hormonal drop, there’s a tremendous shift in her emotions. For the first two weeks postpartum, the baby blues develop— tearfulness, overwhelming emotions, incessant crying, happiness, sadness, and a lot of other emotions. When these feelings last past the two-week postpartum period, it would be classified as a perinatal mood disorder. Anxiety, OCD, depression, and psychosis all fall under the postpartum depression umbrella. “It’s not just depression,” says Samantha Rauber, LPC-S, NCC, PMH-C, and Founder of Baton Rouge Perinatal Counseling. “A lot of the symptomatology that women experience during the postpartum
period includes intrusive thoughts and anxiety.” Normal Postpartum Issues or a More Serious Problem? During the postpartum period, women can expect that there will be adjustment symptoms that occur during recovery, given the tremendous physical experience of giving birth. What differentiates normal adjustment to a more serious postpartum situation depends on the length of the symptoms and if these symptoms interfere with daily life. Up to 85 percent of new mothers experience what is known as the “baby blues,” a mild form of depression caused by hormonal changes. The baby blues can cause a range of emotions, including sadness, anxiety, crying, irritability, and mood swings. While these feelings can be uncomfortable, they shouldn’t last longer than two weeks.
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PINK&BLUE | SPRING 2024
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