Postpartum depression affects around 1 in 7 women. It can have an adverse effect on the well-being of both the mother and child, yet 1 in 5 women keep quiet about their symptoms and therefore remain untreated.
Unlike the baby blues, postpartum depression rarely disappears on its own. The condition can occur days or even months following the birth of your child and last for many weeks or months without treatment.
Postpartum depression is a treatable psychological disorder. It can be managed effectively, and you will feel better. But first and foremost, it is important to reach out to your healthcare provider and ask for help.
Do not struggle with postnatal depression alone. It is not your fault that you are depressed, and being depressed does not make you a bad parent.
Here are Medical News Today‘s steps to cope with postnatal depression, to be used together with guidance and advice from your doctor.
1. Build a secure bond with your baby
Emotional bonding is the secure attachment that forms between parents and children. Successful bonding allows the child to feel safe enough to develop fully, and having this bond will affect the way in which they communicate and form relationships throughout their life.
Baby massage is one way theat you can help to secure the bond between you and your baby.
A secure bond forms when you tune in and respond to your child’s needs or emotional cues, such as picking them up, soothing them, and reassuring them when they cry. Being that dependable source of comfort allows your child to learn how to manage their own feelings and behaviors, which, in turn, helps to strengthen their cognitive development.
Postpartum depression can have a significant impact on early bonding, making it difficult get through each day and hindering your ability to look after both your baby and yourself.
Some parents feel an instant rush of love the moment they set eyes on their baby, while for others, it takes time. If you have not yet bonded with your baby, do not feel anxious or guilty. Sometimes, it can take weeks — or even months — to feel an attachment, but it should come with time.
Learning to bond with your baby benefits both you and your child. Close contact with your infant releases oxytocin, the “love” or “cuddle hormone.” An increase in oxytocin makes you feel happier, more caring, and sensitive to the feelings of others, and it enables you to recognize nonverbal cues from your baby more readily.
Here are some ways that you can strengthen the bond with your baby.
Skin-to-skin contact
Regardless of whether you breast-feed or formula feed your baby, try doing so while their bare skin is against your own. If the room is cool, wrap a blanket around your baby’s back to keep them warm. You can also cradle your baby skin-to-skin.
Skin-to-skin contact relaxes both you and your baby, as well as enhances the bond between you. Additional benefits of skin-to-skin contact include prolonged periods of sleep and alertness, less cold stress, improved weight gain, better brain development, decreased crying, and an earlier discharge from the hospital.
Baby massage
Touch is an important part of your child’s development and helps to support the bonding process. Baby massage has been shown to decrease the severity of symptoms in mothers with postpartum depression.
Smile
Your baby will likely lose their reflex smile and give you their first real one between 6 and 12 weeks of age. Research has found that when a mother sees her baby smiling, areas of her brain that are associated with reward light up.
The areas that are stimulated relate to the neurotransmitter dopamine and are the same areas that are activated in individuals with drug addiction. Essentially, seeing your baby smile is similar to a “natural high.”
Hold your baby approximately 8–12 inches from your face — so that they can see you properly — give them a wide smile, and offer them a warm “hello” in a happy tone to coax a smile.
Sing
Regardless of the tempo, key, and whether you are the best or worst singer in the world, singing to your baby has many benefits. Engaging with your child through song is just as effective as reading them a book or playing with toys in keeping their attention, and it is more effective than listening to recorded music.
Singing to your baby not only provides them with the sensory stimulation that they need to focus their attention but also provides a distraction for you from the negative thoughts associated with depression, while simultaneously empowering you as a parent.
2. Take care of yourself
Taking care of yourself is one of the best ways to relieve or prevent postpartum depression. Simple lifestyle choices — some of which are listed below — can improve your health and mood and help you to feel more like yourself again.
Try to get as much sleep or rest as you can while your baby is sleeping.
Eat omega-3. Consuming a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in oily fish such as herring and salmon, during pregnancy may lower the risk of postpartum depression. It may also be a potential alternative treatment for postpartum depression.
Nap. “Sleep when the baby sleeps” is a phrase often used by those giving new parents advice — advice that parents usually roll their eyes at. After all, getting any form of sleep while looking after a newborn is a tricky task.
Women living with postpartum depression often take longer to fall asleep and sleep for less time than those without the condition. Moreover, the lower the quality of their sleep, the more severe their depression often is.
If you have family or friends who can look after your baby while you take a nap, be sure to enlist their help.
