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Why Do Women Experience Mood Disorders Following Childbirth

Mood disorder following childbirth is very common among women. Up to 80% of all women who have given birth to a child feel some form of depression. This is generally called PPD or Postpartum depression and atypical depression. This is generally caused due to exhaustion and tiredness and generally goes away within a couple of days after childbirth. Sometimes the mood disorder symptoms can last longer and this is when it is defined as PPD.

Mood Disorder Information

There is not much mood disorder information on why this happens although there are a number of theories that have been put forward and also do people with atypical depression lie compulsively. For example women with unwanted pregnancies may be prone to showing mood disorder symptoms, as is the case with women who have marital problems. Also women who have a history of mood disorder in their family also seem to be more at risk. Things like smoking, formula feeding, stress, being a single parent, having a sickly child are all reasons for women to get PPD. With all this mood disorder information we still don’t know why exactly it affects certain women and not others.

The prevalence of PPD is between 5% and 25% depending on where you get your data from. This in itself should be sufficient proof that mood disorder information relating to PPD is seriously lacking. There are also other factors that complicate this. For example a woman who has had a number of children in the past can still start displaying mood disorder symptoms for the latest child although she has never had PPD in the past.
There is also a belief that the profound hormonal changes that occur in a woman after childbirth may be a cause for mood disorder. Once again this is only a theory and there is no mood disorder information to either prove or disprove this fact.

Mood Disorder And Childbirth

Statistics show that women who had depression before, have a higher risk of developing mood disorder after childbirth. Also many women who were on natural antidepressant pills will discontinue them during their pregnancy because it is considered unsafe for the growing fetus. This leaves them prone to getting mood disorder. Women who are lucky enough to have a good support group in the form of friends and relatives generally don’t show as much mood disorder as women who don’t. This is the same case with women who are not financially very well off too. The percentage of women who have PPD is highest in this group and in many cases it is brought on by the stress of having to manage a child as well as their work.

In many cases doctors may not even prescribe natural antidepressant supplements as mood disorder medication because very rarely does PPD last more than 3 – 5 months. It usually comes in within 1 month and in very rare cases can last up to a year. In such cases the doctor may prescribe some form of mood disorder medication or natural antidepressant pills. Although a number of medicines are considered safe to use by lactating mothers, it is still a risk and many mothers do not want  to take mood disorder medication because of this.

The consensus is that natural antidepressant supplements are much safer, but even here caution is advised because there are a few that contain herbs that are not supposed to be used by pregnant or lactating mothers.