‘No one can do this alone:’ Postpartum depression clouding motherhood draws new concern, treatment
Like most new mothers before and since, a Geyserville woman named Chelsea imagined the first year of her son’s life as a period of sweet cuddles, rapturous discoveries and cherished milestones.
It was instead a time of anxiety, guilt and despair so profound she struggled to survive.
She sought help from seven therapists, two psychiatrists and a variety of prescribed medications, but her mental health deteriorated for months.
She had quit a job she loved in order to stay home with her newborn, but about eight weeks after his birth, the risk she might harm herself grew so pronounced that she and her husband knew he couldn’t safely leave her alone.
So they found child care for their son, and Chelsea spent months going out on the road each day with her salesman husband, waiting in the car while he called on clients and clinging to hope she might eventually find a way through the darkness.
“I put on myself to be the perfect mother. And having these preconceived ideas of what motherhood would be and what it would be like to have a baby,” she said. “I didn’t have any idea what it would be like with the sleepless nights. I didn’t have any family around to help or any friends with babies. I felt ?really isolated.”
She is one of what are likely thousands of local survivors of postpartum depression and related mood disorders that strike one in five new mothers in California during pregnancy or the first year of their baby’s life, turning the early days of motherhood into harrowing nightmares.
Experts say most women, about 80 percent, will experience the so-called “baby blues” in the first week or two after childbirth - when plummeting hormone levels and related shifts in brain chemistry, abetted by sleep deprivation and other physical changes, cause mood changes, fatigue, weepiness and worry.
Postpartum depression is something different - more severe and persistent - set off by the same biochemical shockwave but to a more dangerous effect.
Along with related disorders, it is the most common complication of childbirth, one exacerbated by emotional stressors such as a high-risk or traumatic child delivery, financial or marital difficulties, social isolation, domestic violence or family substance abuse - though no such hardships may be present.
The depression often comes with extreme anxiety, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, sleeplessness and terrifying, intrusive thoughts, in addition to despondency so debilitating women often come close to giving up. Occasionally, they do.
The death of a young Mendocino County mother who took her own life earlier this month after what her family said had been a prolonged postpartum depression struck a painful chord with women across the region who identified with the apparent depth of her suffering.
Many came forward to say they had contemplated suicide themselves, sharing stories of their illness and recovery to help other women feel less alone in their own journeys and to urge them toward help.
“I wish more people would come forward, because it is so taboo,” said Kristin Ell, 33, a Santa Rosa mother of two. “No one can do this alone.”
Yet, many try.
A surge in focus on maternal mental health is beginning to change the landscape of care, nationally and globally. But despite its pervasiveness, awareness of postpartum depression and its many expressions is generally low among both patients and even some practitioners, clinicians say.
Routine screening for new mothers is not entirely consistent, though in recent years it has become the recommended standard. Overall, too many people are suffering unnecessarily because of a lack of awareness and stigma, advocates say.
“The community needs to do more,” said Julie Clark, a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology with St. Joseph Health Medical Group in Petaluma. She has gone so far as to contemplate billboards to raise awareness of the subject.
In addition to putting women at risk, studies show a mother’s unaddressed mental health issues can impact how she interacts with her baby and how well they bond. It can affect a child’s cognitive, social and behavioral development, experts say.
“Postpartum depression is a very real issue in America, and it’s often underdiagnosed and overlooked and minimized to a degree,” said Jonathan Kurss, an OB-GYN with St. Joseph Health Medical Group in Santa Rosa.
The fact that sleep deprivation from nighttime feedings can look so much like depression in new mothers also may cause some doctors to overlook signs of a serious condition that can benefit from medication and talk therapy, especially in combination, he said.
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