Managing Postpartum Depression

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Introduction

If you have the "baby blues" after childbirth, you're not alone—about half of women have a few days of mild depression after having a baby.¹ However unsettling, a certain amount of insomnia, irritability, tears, overwhelmed feelings, and mood swings are normal. Baby blues usually peak around the fourth postpartum day and subside in less than 2 weeks, when hormonal changes have settled down. However, you can have bouts of baby blues throughout your baby's first year.

If your depressed feelings have lasted more than 2 weeks, your body isn't recovering from childbirth as expected. Postpartum depression:

• Is very common, affecting 1 in every 8 women during the first months of their babies' lives.²
• Is a serious medical condition that can be prolonged and disabling without treatment and can affect a baby's development.
• Is best treated with counseling and an antidepressant medication.³
• Can further improve when you take some home treatment measures.

To prevent serious problems for you and your baby, now is the time to work with your health professional to treat your symptoms.

If you are having thoughts of hurting yourself, your baby, or anyone else, see your health professional immediately or call 911 for emergency medical care.

 What is postpartum depression?

 Why treat postpartum depression?

 How is postpartum depression treated?

 Where to go from here

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Last updated:	June 30, 2006
Author:	Kathe Gallagher, MSW
Reviewed By:	Joy Melnikow, MD, MPH - Family Medicine, Lisa S. Weinstock, MD - Psychiatry
Editors:	Renée Spengler, RN, BSN, Pat Truman