When a woman is pregnant with a baby, she faces a major role change in her life, from being a wife to being a mother. During this important stage of pregnancy and childbirth, women face not only changes in body image, subconscious internal conflicts and emotional adjustments required for first-time motherhood, but also changes in social roles, family relationships and financial needs. As a result, some mothers-to-be fall into a stressful situation and are prone to depression, boredom, parent-child tension, and even irritation. The experts reminded the young mothers to adjust their emotions in time to face the lovely baby, but do not be a “depressed” mother.
“The first symptom is depressed mood. Mothers often feel depressed, frustrated, emotionally indifferent, and behave in a lonely, shy, reluctant to meet people or sad, tearful, even anxious, fearful, and irritable way. Secondly, they lose interest in almost everything and feel that life is uninteresting and boring. They feel depressed, sad, or “empty” all day long, and every day. Third, mothers have difficulty concentrating, feel excessive or never-ending fatigue, are extremely irritable or irritable, or cry all the time. Fourth, sleep is poor or severe insomnia, while daytime lethargy. Some people will have a large increase or decrease in appetite, always wanting to eat or not wanting to eat at all, with large changes in weight gain or loss. Others will not be able to concentrate their thoughts, have disorganized language expressions, and lack logic and comprehensive judgment. There is often a pronounced sense of inferiority, undeserved guilt, often involuntary excessive self-blame, and a lack of self-confidence in everything. Feeling useless and hopeless. In severe cases, there are repeated suicidal ideations or attempts.
In addition, some mothers may have sudden panic attacks without prior warning, accompanied by palpitations, light-headedness or dizziness, sweaty palms, shortness of breath, and what feels like a heart attack or fainting. Other mothers may regularly worry about their own or their baby’s health, or often feel that something terrible is about to happen. These are all symptoms of postpartum depression and may be accompanied by physical symptoms such as dizziness and headache, nausea, heartburn, constipation, increased breathing and heart rate, decreased lactation, and easy hair loss. If you find that you fit the above-mentioned conditions, please do not hesitate to seek immediate medical attention. Unexpected results can be obtained by applying appropriate psychotherapy and antidepressant medication.
Early identification and intervention for a healthy mother and child In general, mothers suffering from “postpartum depression” are often reluctant to hold their babies or unable to feed them properly. They do not always observe and pay attention to their babies’ reactions during the day. Even when the baby cries, it does not attract the mother’s attention. The infant sometimes becomes unmanageable due to the mother’s irregular touching. The mother does not get along with the infant; she loathes the child or is afraid to touch the child, and even develops some delusions that she will hurt the child. As the mother-infant relationship is not properly established, the infant’s psychological development is also affected.
It is known that infants whose mothers suffer from postpartum depression are prone to behavioral difficulties, emotional stress, less satisfaction, easy fatigue, poor motor development, and increased risk of ADHD in the first 3 months of life. In addition, at 6 months of age, infants are also at risk for underweight and under height problems. The severity of the mother’s postpartum depression is positively associated with poor mental and motor developmental disorders in the infant. A mother with depression in the first postpartum year has a child who has significantly lower levels of cognitive and emotional development than children born to healthy women and often exhibits timidity, hypersensitivity, anxiety-prone, withdrawn, poor interpersonal skills, and poor social adjustment.