Postpartum Depression

Thank you for responding, baby "blues" does go away often on its own without needing any treatment, but depression is different and often times requires help and treatment.

Thank you for being couragous and brave enough to post! In the USA we have these phony ideas that motherhood is all smiles and happy babies...many women tend to get hostile at the rattling of that cage...but I thank you for sharing, somewhere there is a mother you are helping because she can read this and know she's not the only one...

I understand what you went through. Thank you for sharing, as I posted above, I desire this to be a safe place for moms to share with each other. I'm a mom too! And through my work experiences with birthing, your experiences happen to many other moms as well. When a baby is born by emergency c-section and then whisked away for neonatal intensive care (nicu)--there is a big sence of loss. These feelings are normal, but often unacknowledged by other people who haven't gone through it the same way. Even an emergency c-section without nicu is experienced as a sence of loss. And with loss comes grief, and if no one around us can recognize or understand that, yep, it is depressing. I'm glad you're sharing here. Thank you.

You are so welcome - I feel the same way as you do - without sharing what we have been through - other women lose a way to understand what different kinds of things can happen and how it can affect you not only physically but also emotionally too!!!! It's so important to me to share my experiences - not only to help others understand but it's also a way of telling your story without holding anything back about being worried on how someone is going to take it!! That's just me!!!

Wow! OK, then, here's a bit of contribution from me. I have 4 babies. Only one labor was with an epidural, but I regret it to this day. It took away the pain, but it interfered with my ability to push - I felt no urge, so this part took longer. Also, the epidural made me shake. I'd like to have a fifth child, in which case I'd have no epidural, but I probably won't.

Thank you for writing more! Since you have experiences to compare, let me ask you, did you notice any difference in your moments after birth between non-epidurala babies and epidural baby? Did you feel any differently because you couldn't feel the urge to push nor feel the sensations of delivery? I have a special interest in this question! I have a theory that epidurals' numbness affects the way we bond with baby at birth. Am I on track, or full of it?!

No, I did not find birth traumatic, I have 3 children all born at home with midwives, each birthing was beautiful and different. I've worked in the birthing related fields for 30 years, and these topics are to find out what others have experienced, for a new book I'm writing. I've written a book called "Avoiding Overwhelming Pain in Labor" soon to be for sale online at my website, Auntie Natal 911 http://www.auntienatal911.com I've written 32 books in this genre, and I'm conducting research and gathering birth stories for my 33rd book!

Postpartum depression may occur anytime within the first year after giving birth. There is a continuum of postpartum depression, and it is not "baby blues". "Baby blues" usually go away without treatment, but postpartum depression may be debilitating and long lasting. Signs and symptoms include feeling isolated, unable to sleep, unable to eat, feeling disassociated from baby and family, crying for unknown reasons, loosing interest in life...and more. Some believe that postpartum depression is hormonal, yet I believe otherwise.

Sometimes a pregnant mother in labor experiences unrelenting pain. Pain tolerance is different for each person, and is different in all circumstances. Sometimes the normal stresses of labor combine with lack of sleep, hunger, fear of the unknown, being in a strange place (a hospital), and other factors, too many to address in this one post--these things combine to make physiologic labor contractions of the uterus feel so painful that edges blur. A woman may not know where one contraction stops and the other contraction begins. This is especially true of pitocin augmented contractions. Contractions begin to feel like ONE BIG never ending contraction. A woman becomes overwhelmed by pain. Unrelenting prolonged unrelenting pain may lead to an undiagnosed psychotic break (this does not mean a woman goes "crazy" per se) and contributes to postpartum depression and/or the continuum leading to postpartum psychosis. It's not intentional. It doesn't make a mother "bad". It happens. If this description brings tears to your eyes, or maybe an "aha!" feeling, please post. I'm doing research for my new book. I already self publish a book I wrote called "Avoiding Overwhelming Pain in Labor. I'll post a sample chapter. Here's my homepage link, keep checking. http://www.auntienatal911.com Thank you!

Here's a link to the postpartum phase of the childbearing cycle: Auntie Natal 911 ~ Postpartum http://www.auntienatal911.com/postpartum.htm

thank you

Thank you for responding. Did your babies nurse immediately after birthing?

How early in labor did you have an epidural?