1 in 5 Women Suffer from Post-Partum Depression
By Danell Swim
April 11, 2008
Postpartum depression seems to be more common than thought among U.S. women, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released on Friday showed.
Postpartum depression, also known as postnatal depression is a form of clinical depression, which can affect women after childbirth. Symptoms of postpartum depression can occur anytime in the first year postpartum and include, but are not limited to, the following: sadness, hopelessness, low self-esteem, guilt, sleep disturbances, inability to be comforted, exhaustion, emptiness, inability to enjoy things one previously enjoyed, social withdrawal, low energy and feeling inadequate in taking care of the baby.
The approximately 52,000 new moms in 17 states included in the survey in 2004-2005 had to answer just two questions: 1.) “Since your new baby was born, how often have you felt down, depressed, or hopeless?” and 2.) “Since your new baby was born, how often have you had little interest or little pleasure in doing things?”
The women answering “always” or “often” were considered to suffer from postpartum depressive symptoms.
The prevalence of self-reported postpartum depression ranged from 11.7 percent in Maine to 20.4 percent in New Mexico.
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2 Responses to “1 in 5 Women Suffer from Post-Partum Depression”
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The most commonly afflicted women seem to be those suffering from societal shortcomings…lack of complete education, low income, dysfunctional relationships /abuse. Gee, as if these things would not just be depressing in and of themselves!
Should it be any wonder that our more vulnerable new mothers feel really down after bringing a new life into situations that are far from ideal??
Those numbers are pretty high it would seem, I have found it to be a very case by case thing– not even patient by patient…
when i had my first everything was hunky dory, easy as pie (relatively speaking), but then when the second one came it hit me hard. I didn’t want to get out of bed, leave the house, nothing. I have heard many different things about why such would be the case with one birth rather than the other, leading me all the more to believe that its circumstantial as much as biological…
Here is a little something I found that may be of help for those trying to work through this now, or working to head it off in the future…