POST-NATAL –DEPRESSION

Halo yummy mummies, how are we all doing, hope we are all doing great and the Tinnie-Winnies too and guess we are bonding well? I know we are so excited, you can’t catch a sleep, you just want to hold your adorable little one and keep staring at him or her, please take it easy, and all will definitely be fine.

Motherhood is such a sweet experience with its physical and emotional attributes. Because this is a new experience for you it can turn out to be stressful and if not properly managed can lead to Post-natal depression or Post-partum depression as the case may be called.   Post-partum depression may make you feel sapped of energy and unable to cope with your daily life. You may not be able to concentrate on anything. Or you may find it hard to remember things and be very indecisive. Post-partum depression often affects sleep, whether that means you can’t get to sleep, or are disturbed by early-morning waking, or vivid nightmares.

Few signs but not limited to these can be looked out for or happening to someone and if these signs go beyond the first two weeks of your child’s arrival, please ask for help:

• Constant negative thoughts and feelings.
• Anxiety about things that shouldn’t normally bother you.
• Not being happy with your baby, or feeling hostile towards him, your partner, or your other children or even people around you, no pleasure in the things you usually enjoy
• Extremely worried about your baby’s health, even though he’s fine, or thinking you are a hopeless mum, even when you’re doing well.
• Fearful that you might harm your baby.
• Being obsessed with your own health or your baby’s, such as whether or not he is gaining weight, or is breathing properly, or he isn’t getting enough milk, etc.
• Persistently sad or low.
• Exhausted, and lacking in motivation
• Guilty, perhaps about not coping, or not loving your baby enough.
• Lacking in confidence.
• Ready to blame yourself for everything.
• Not keen to see friends or family.
• Irritable and tearful.                                                                                                                           

This feeling (s), when they become persistent and don’t go until after a month of having your child can lead to a mental disorder if not properly taken care of, Mothers are therefore advised to take things easy, not to over-react to things around you or situations, to accept help or call for help, have a close relation around or an experienced person around to help you on how to go about issues in the house.

              Prepare yourself for the arrival of your child by:

·         Getting your house in order and the baby’s room in order, arrange the baby’s clothes, diapers, wipes and other things where they can be easily accessed.

·        Preparing your older kids if there are any for the arrival of a new born.

·        Make feeding provision: I make available different types of soup and store in different containers in the freezer, so that at least for 2weeks, there are soups in the house and we just turn semo, amala, and eba or boil rice, yam or beans which you can do or someone else helps you.

·        Do what works for you best:  for example in this part of the world (Nigeria) we love to do traditional things, like the way we bath our new born, arranging different kinds of things ranging from baby bath tub, different buckets containing different degrees of hot and cold water, etc. This might not work for you, I have a friend in the US who normally complains of back ache, what she does is to bath her baby in the kitchen zinc, where she can stand to perform the bathing rituals on the baby.

·        Rest!! Rest!!! Rest!!!!! Get enough rest you can.

·        Sleep is essential for new moms too, you might ask, what time do you have to sleep, there is work to be done, yes there is work but you need sleep, so you sleep when your baby is sleeping, if you are not able to sleep, you can lay on the bed beside your baby and rest.

Don’t be scared by the post o, nothing will happen, just take things easy, please feel free to drop your comments, suggestions and ask questions too.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tytylurpe.