Pitocin and Postpartum Depression

Hi! I had pitocin at 9 in the morning on the Thursday. Started having the cramps a couple of hours later. Of course they would give me nothing for them, and they were just horrific - the entire night. I was too sore to sit, or lie, or stand... And the staff were really unsympathetic - horrible! The next morning at 9 they checked and I had only dilated 1cm... They wanted to give it to me again, but I told them they werent coming anywhere near me with that stuff again! So they broke my waters instead. Anyway the rest of my labour and birth were absolutely horrific. I don't want to go into it again, but I described it in my thread about bad births if you're interested. I think I did have PPD, but I have always attributed it to the emotional trauma of the birth and the fact that I wasn't allowed to talk about it afterwards. (By that I mean that I would try and tell the story to my family and friends, and immediately they would say 'but what matters is you have a healthy baby', so I never really was able to talk about what happened.) Anyway your picotin link is very interesting. I never really thought about the physical pain possibly causing PPD as well.

Well let's see - I was induced with my 1st and had pitocin but no PPD. But with my 2nd - being an emergency C-section and not meeting him until days after he was born since they flew him to another hospital while I was stuck recovering. I did in fact develop severe PPD after having him - but I think it was related to it being a serious event - him being in another hospital - my not getting to meet my son for days - I think the whole thing was a total struggle to regain myself afterwards for a long time!!!! So I don't think that pitocin really is a cause for PPD. I feel like it's more situational!!!

I had pitocin and didn't have postpartum depression.

I had pitocan with my daughter and it was a very hard birth but no depression. However when I went to be induced with my son as soon as they gave me the pitocin he flipped, went breach. So they messaged my belly, pushed him back and restarted the pitocin after I started contracting then he flipped back. I ended up with a c-section. :( So I am hoping that this next one we will do Vback! keep our legs crossed, And hope that I can!

Wow, now that you bring this up, I did have pitocin, and experienced post partum depression in both cases. This time around, I have had terrible phobias, too. I'm just coming out of my depression and my baby is 7 months old. I never really thought of a connection. It could be related, or it may just be a coincidence. I'm prone to depression anyway.

I was induced with pitocin and developed PPD. I didn't see a Dr. until my son was almost a year old so they just classified it as depression. I don't know if there is a link between the two but I know that pitocin could lead to a longer/harder labor which might have an affect on some women.

I had pitocin both times I was in labor and delivery and did not experience post partum depression. Is it susupected to be a factor in PPD?

Actually my PPD occurred with myf irst baby. No pitocin. I was induced with baby #2 (pitocin) and no PPD resulted.

No pitocin with either kid and no PPD.. so who knows??

I had pitocin and I had a mild case of post partum depression for about 6 or 7 months after my daughter was born. I think there may be a slight connection, but only in the way that I wanted my labor and birth to go a certain way, and the pitocin and the pain that came with it didn't fit into my plan, giving me a generally bad feeling about the birth of my daughter. It's a long shot, but it makes sense. lol.

I had pitocin, and also suffer from PPD. I think there were a lot of factors to my PPD, however. I cannot determine whether it was a result of the pitocin. If anything, I would think that it was not a reason. My entire birth did not go at all as planned. My water broke 5 weeks early, I labored for 14 and a half hours, three and a half of which were spent pushing while DS's head was completely visible. This went on only to find that my pelvic bone was tilted and there was no way a baby could get past it. So after all of that I had a c-section. DS was whisked away due to low blood sugar. I didn't get to see nurse him or even see him for 8 hours. Then he couldn't nurse. We had nursing issues, he had a heart murmur, the low blood sugar, and was jaundiced as well. All but the nursing issues cleared before we left the hospital. Then DS had lots of stomach issues, food allergies and sensitivities. I had to change my diet completely and eliminate everything to figure out what was causing his problems. once he finally started nursing on his own, he would not take a bottle ever again. in this way he was attached to me. DH was working 90 hours a week, so I was stuck at home with this screaming infant attatched to me. It was very difficult. The worst part is that my PPD wasn't diagnosed until DS was 18 months old. Now things are looking up. If you find a correlation between the pitocin and PPD, I think that would be interesting.

I only had pitocin with my eldest, and I did not experience postpartum depression after his birth. I don't know of any direction connection between the two, but I can see how an over-managed birth (which if you've been given pit, chances are your birth was very manipulated) can lead to postpartum depression. Pitocin can be so violent in it's effects, it's understandable that most moms ask for an epidural after receiving pit. Chances are you're also hooked up to IVs, monitors & a host of other invasive procedures. If you were hoping for a natural birth, a peaceful birth & then you were given pit & the rest; I can see that would lead to postpartum depression.

Birthlady & smalltowngirl, and a few others here. Are you still on this thread? Seeking answers for my wife's ppd!!! I continually see a connection with pitocin and ppd.