The internet can be both a blessing and curse. When you’re pregnant, unless you have prior education and training in the realm of obstetrics and gynecology, you can dive deep into the rabbit hole of learning all about how the baby is maturing inside of you. You may daydream about your future life as a mom and scroll the many social media sites that offer day-in-the life testimonials for you viewing pleasure. And of course the shopping. Google can save you tons of walking, allowing you to search all the baby care products and items from the comfort of your sofa. You’ve got this. You will be going into this prepared.
With any luck, you’ll be pretty far along in your pregnancy before you stumble into the weeds of more difficult inquiries, like questions about what exactly happens during labor and delivery or discussions about the challenges associated with re-entering the work force as a new working mom. Your exploration may lead you to uncover information on the internet about the physical and mental health experiences of new moms. Here you may find some truly disturbing stories about other new moms who have taken their lives and/or the lives of their babies/children while in the throes of severe postpartum depression. You may start to worry about “getting” it yourself – like postpartum depression is a flu that you can somehow “catch.”
We have come a long way in the past few decades in both assessing women for postpartum mental health challenges and providing proper treatment. This does not mean, by any means, that all risk has been eliminated. There simply is no way to assure that women do not experience mental health issues – including depression – in the postpartum. And it’s also important to note that a variety of hormonal, psychosocial, socioeconomic, and individual factors often contribute to the few publicized tragedies that do occur. These situations are the exception, not the norm.
We do know that approximately one in seven women develop depression in the postpartum. Psychotherapy and antidepressant medications are the most common first-line treatment options utilized in most cases. Women with mild to moderate depression may opt for transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as an alternative to antidepressants, particularly if they are breastfeeding. When the depression is severe, persistent or otherwise not responding to these approaches, sometimes some sort of care at a hospital is necessary. This may take the form of 24/7 inpatient or intensive outpatient treatment.
Sometimes, despite a mom coming forward and seeking help, and her providers doing their very best to provide treatment and support, something truly bad happens. These terrible stories have a way of catching the eye of a new mom and grasping both her attention and heart in a different way than such a story might have previously. The struggle of this other mom is too readily appreciated.
We will never fully know the depths of emotional pain that would be so heavy as to lead a new mom to take her own life and/or the life of her baby. She is no longer here to tell us her story. But if you find yourself traveling down the pathway of worrying about “getting” postpartum depression, it’s important to talk about it. Developing a good working relationship with your providers is something that you can do, even during your pregnancy, to set a foundation for any needs that you may have. Identifying the resources in your local community that support new moms is another way to work against any anxieties that you may have about the postpartum experience.
Mughal, S. Azhar, Y & Siddiqui, W (last updated 2022). Postpartum depression. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519070/. (Accessed March 27, 2023.)