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Dr. Shoshana Bennett, the delightfully down to earth “go-to” expert on postpartum depression, shared a wealth of information with me this week on The Mommy-Muse Is In. You may already know that hormones play a major biochemical role in postpartum depression, but do you know the additional risk factors involved? Here is what Dr. Bennett has to say:
- Isolation – If a mom is isolated, alone with her baby for six hours or more during the day, day after day, this puts her at high risk. She needs social contact, she needs emotional support, and she needs physical support.
- Lack of partner support – If a mom does not have a partner, or if she does but that partner is not supporting her, it can make her even worse or even contribute to causing postpartum depression.
- Other stresses or traumas in her life or past hormonal responses – If a mom has had PMS or PMDD (Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder) in the past, or even if she has reacted with negative mood changes to the birth control pill, we now consider her high risk because she’s reacted in that way to a hormone shift. After all, what’s the biggest hormone shift in a woman’s life? It’s having a baby.
- Previous depression – Certainly a previous depression or a previous family history of depression will also make her high risk.
Even if you have none of these risk factors, Dr. Shosh stresses that “Nobody is immune. A lot of women will hear these statistics and say, ‘I have a clean history. There is nothing going on. I’m a happy, upbeat, easy going person. This can’t happen to me.’ I just want them to know, not to scare anyone or be the voice of doom here, but you need to prepare yourself because all the preparation that one can do to prevent it is good for any new mom.
There is a tremendous amount of research going on now as to what those factors are that are colliding at one point to cause a depression. What I talk about in Postpartum Depression for Dummies and Pregnant on Prozac are ways to avoid even going there to begin with. It’s good for every mom or mom-to-be.”
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