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PND - don't suffer in silence

One in ten mothers get post-natal depression. It can last months or years. Dr Howard Lee explains the symptoms and how to get help

There are three types of post-natal emotional disturbance that can affect women:

1. The most rare and dramatic, which fortunately only affects about 2 in every 1000 new mothers, is Post-Natal Psychosis. The symptoms are quite disturbing and complicated and you may not realise that you are suffering from them because you are out of touch with reality. They may occur within the first six weeks after delivery and include:

• Marked disturbance in mood, characterised by
• a very high or elevated mood; or
• a very low, depressed mood; or
• moods that swing from high to low.
• A disturbance in thought processes, with nonsensical conversation
• Auditory or visual hallucinations
• Sleep disturbance

No one really knows what causes this very distressing condition - it seems that there are many 'triggers'. Psychiatric treatment is certainly necessary, however, and this may even include possible admission to hospital. This fact should not cause you unnecessary distress or worry as the outlook is very favourable for most women, who will go on to make a complete recovery.

2. The very common condition of Post-Natal 'blues', which is a brief period of emotional distress, occurring between the 3rd and the 10th day after you have given birth, is thought to affect 50-80% of all women - in some way - and stretches across all cultures and social groups. The symptoms are attributed to the sudden change in hormonal balance that occurs following childbirth, and as soon as this manages to sort itself out, the symptoms settle. Treatment is not usually needed but you may find some helpful advice in our article Beating the baby blues

3. Post-Natal Depression (PND) means 'becoming depressed after having a baby'. This condition is not usually related to any 'obvious' cause associated with childbirth - although most of those who do suffer the condition are experiencing what is certainly a common complication of childbirth. Sometimes this may be easy to explain - the baby is unwanted or is 'abnormal' in some way. Mostly though, the depression makes no obvious sense: 'I was so looking forward to having this baby, and now I feel utterly miserable'. PND can affect one in every ten women who do suffer an emotional disturbance after childbirth. It can happen to anyone, and is certainly not a sign of 'weakness', as so many people think. It can vary from a very mild illness to a very severe one. It does not lead to 'madness', again, as so many people think. Many women still suffer in silence, quite unnecessarily, from the symptoms of this most common complication of childbirth.

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