Until a few years ago, many scholars still believed that postpartum depression, a distinct type of depression that starts within 4 weeks after childbirth, was very high in mothers. Extreme cases have been reported in the news, such as a 36-year-old Houston woman who drowned her five biological children in 2001 when her youngest child was only 6 months old and was severely disturbed by depression. Such horrific human tragedies add to the tragic overtones of “postpartum depression. In fact, recent studies show that it is very common for women to experience some emotional problems within ten days of giving birth. About 50 to 70 percent of new mothers show “symptoms” such as emotional instability, crying and irritability, often mixed with a lot of happy feelings. These symptoms subside quickly on their own, are not true depression, and have no adverse effects on mother and baby.
True major depression is no more prevalent in women in labor than it is in other women of the same age. However, if a woman has some of the following high-risk factors, she does have a higher likelihood of developing depression in the postpartum period. These factors include: 1. Change in status: The mother is not prepared for her new status as a mother and feels that she is not fulfilling her responsibilities as a mother.
2. Decreased self-confidence: New mothers may encounter many difficulties in taking care of their babies, not knowing how to cope with them, being annihilated by all the new situations and challenges, with a general decrease in self-confidence and self-efficacy, followed by anxiety, depression and helplessness.
3. Lack of support: The lack of a good social support system is also a high-risk factor. The arrival of a new baby is a happy event for a family, but it is also a huge stressful event. If the couple or family relationship has big problems and cannot provide the necessary emotional support and practical help to the new mother, she is likely to fall into depression because of her inability to face this stressful event alone.