What’s Normal, What’s Crazy: How You Can Tell What’s Going On
Life changes dramatically with the advent of a new child. While it is understandable that stress levels may be high and negative emotions common during the adjustment to being on call 24 hours a day, new mothers typically hide these feelings from friends and family members. They mistakenly believe that grateful, loving thoughts and emotions are the only appropriate ones to admit to when dealing with the challenges of new motherhood.
The internal belief that other people will perceive them as “bad” keeps too many mothers silent. They may choose to suffer quietly rather than risking strong judgements from friends and family or even having their babies taken away. Having a guideline to show what is normal and what isn’t can make all the difference in getting help to new mothers in difficult situations.
The “baby blues” are experienced by most women during the first two weeks after giving birth. Hormone levels go through huge fluctuations before settling down and normalizing. During this time, new moms often have a hard time concentrating, and find themselves to be more forgetful than usual, anxious, tired, tearful, irritable and moody. The good news is that the “baby blues” tend to resolve without any external intervention.
But what if the symptoms are more severe and last longer? What if depression, hopelessness, feelings of vulnerability and inadequacy as a wife and mother, lack of interest in the baby or oneself, low level of daily functioning or severe mood swings are part of the mix? Surely this is crazy, right? Wrong. These symptoms are common in the 10% – 17% of women who experience postpartum depression.
What if the experiences are even more difficult? Is a mother crazy if she has panic attacks, visions of bad things happening to her baby without being able to stop them, obsessions about germs or cleanliness, or other unreasonable fears? Probably not. Women with these symptoms are likely to have postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Well then, what about those “crazy” moms we hear about on the news? The ones who hear voices commanding them to hurt themselves or their babies? The ones who think their babies are demonic? What then?
These women are probably dealing with the severe end of the postpartum mood disorder spectrum. This is the line between crazy and sane. Only one or two out of every 1000 women will cope with this rare disorder. Their auditory and visual hallucinations can be quite dangerous. Women with postpartum psychosis need immediate medical attention and hospitalization, and yes, their babies will have to be taken care of by other people for a while.
Here’s a helpful way to assess the situation: If a new mother has the presence of mind to be concerned about her thoughts and emotions, if she is worried about the well being of herself and her child, she is quite likely sane. All the symptoms you’ve just read about are absolutely treatable. Let’s remove the stigma from postpartum mood disorders and encourage new moms to be honest about their experiences. Help is available now.
Tags: italian baby names, baby bottles, baby gender, baby halloween costumes, baby bottle, basket baby, baby carrier, baby shower themes