Postpartum depression

Different forms of postpartum depression

Postpartum depression can be explained by several factors. It is clear that hormonal changes play a crucial role in triggering this type of depression: A woman who is pregnant will experience fluctuations in hormones that will be the strongest it has ever known. They say that estrogen and progesterone are a thousand times higher in late pregnancy than they are normally. One can therefore expect that there will be repercussions.

In these extraordinary hormonal fluctuations, we must understand that all women do not react the same way. We now know that there are estrogen receptors and progesterone throughout the brain, including in areas of the brain involved in processing thoughts and emotional control. And 6-8% of women in the population are particularly sensitive to these fluctuations of hormones and for whom pregnancy is a challenge for mental health. It also seems that women who have already suffered from depression, earlier in their lives, are also more likely to live in a new postpartum period.


Attachment shaken

In the post-partum depression  there may be disorders of attachment to the baby that will be manifested by a lack or loss of attachment that was developed by an attachment or fusion. The mother becomes symbiotic with her baby. Sometimes, the attachment will not be affected by postpartum depression.

Distressing obsessions

In addition to attachment disorder, postpartum depression can cause other disorders, including anxiety disorders. Among these are, in particular perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder that can develop late in pregnancy or postpartum period. This is a disorder that can be particularly upsetting for women who suffer. It is a disorder that is manifest as obsessions, crazy ideas, strange, abnormal and morbid, the woman knows crazy, strange, abnormal and morbid and that she tries to hunt at any cost, and which may be associated with a fear of seeming to act.

In some cases, these obsessive thoughts may manifest absolutely confusing: the mother can kill her child to imagine knife. While it is extremely rare that a mother really going to act, the fact remains that the recurrence of such obsessions can generate considerable suffering among women who suffer.

It is very important that women know that it exists. The morbid obsessions can be a complication of pregnancy such as preeclampsia, such as diabetes, like other complications ...

In some cases, women who make postpartum depression requiring hospitalization. Imagine the heartbreak that means to a mother having to leave her child in such circumstances ...