Knowing When to Get Help: Are You Suffering From Postpartum Depression?

Postpartum depression can be divided into three categories: postpartum blues or baby blues, postpartum depression, and postpartum psychosis. These situations, although similar, vary depending on intensity. For instance, postpartum blues occur in short durations; postpartum depression lasts longer and requires medical care; while postpartum psychosis requires aggressive psychiatric care.

How can you tell the difference between the three? Parenting website You and Your Family said that women who experience baby blues react more strongly and more deeply than usual. They also tend to change their moods often. However, they are as likely to cry from happiness as they are to sadness.

Did you know symptoms of postpartum depression can by physical, like headaches or nausea? https://t.co/zvLedOBOZY pic.twitter.com/C9qUXhCQkv

— Katherine Stone (@postpartumprog) March 2, 2016

Postpartum depression, on the other hand, has a tendency to be chronic and recurrent. Even worse, it can interfere with mother-infant bonding. Symptoms include excessive guilt, feelings of hopelessness, difficulty concentrating, and even thoughts of death or suicide.

Other symptoms include lethargy, loss of interest in hobbies, feeling emotionally numb, and a change in sleeping habits. Left untreated, it can interfere with mother-infant bonding, and it can also increase the risk of the baby growing up from depression, or behavioral and learning problems.

The most rare of the three is postpartum psychosis. It also tends to be more dangerous because it comes with a 5% suicide rate and 4% infanticide rate that can be connected to the illness.  Postpartum Support International noted that women who have this are experiencing breaks from reality.

WebMD noted that calling a doctor about these illnesses is appropriate if signs and symptoms of depression began within two months of giving birth, and have lasted longer than two weeks. Postpartum depression can be treated with the help of psychotherapy, medication, or even both. Meanwhile, immediate help is necessary when a woman has hallucinations and delusions about herself or the baby, or has thoughts of hurting herself or the baby.