Determine If You Have Postpartum by Identifying the Signs and Symptoms.
Six of the top signs of having postpartum are…
- Still feeling sad, anxious, or overwhelmed 2-3 weeks after the birth of your baby,
- Your thoughts feel all-consuming, you cannot stop worrying about your baby, you may also have trouble making simple decisions
- You have lost interest in things, even things you used to be interested in
- You feel lost, isolated and not “like yourself’
- You are afraid to be alone or alone with your baby
- You can’t sleep even when you have the opportunity to
The best way to be proactive about postpartum anxiety and depression is to begin talking about it with your primary care providers who can refer you to a counsellor who specializes in postpartum mental health.
Do you have a history of anxiety and depression? That is really important for your midwife, doctor or obstetrician to know. The best way to protect yourself against postpartum depression and anxiety is to begin working on working on it while you are still pregnant.
You can begin to look at how you have handled stress and anxiety in the past, this will provide a framework on how you might cope in the postpartum period. While you are still pregnant you will be able to begin working on building up your mental well-being so that you can go into your postpartum period feeling strong and resourced. All too often people feel like they need to just get through their pregnancy and then they will be able to ‘rest and recover their well-being’ It is true that resting is important in your postpartum period but you will also be more sleep-deprived and going through the steep learning curve of developing the new skills to take care of your baby.
Healthy Looking at mental health in pregnancy can help you make a plan of how you are going to cope when things get hard. Practicing good lifestyle habits in pregnancy make it easier and more possible to cope better in the postpartum period.
