Having a baby is a life-changing experience for every parent. Naturally, it comes with a lot of excitement, among other overwhelming emotions such as fear, doubt, and worry about your family’s future. Such cases are especially strong for first-time parents. However, suppose you are feeling extreme levels of sadness, mood swings, and loneliness and have more crying spells than usual. In that case, there is a chance you are experiencing postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression is a type of mood disorder that develops in mothers after the birth of their child. While almost every parent experiences ‘baby blues’ in irritation, burnout, and mood changes after a child is born, postpartum depression is rarer and more extreme. It can lead to severe mood fluctuations, anxiety attacks, sadness, crying spells, and mothers often recount difficulty feeling love and attachment for the baby, among many other symptoms. It can seriously affect the parent’s life and their relationship with the child. For this reason, if you are one of the people experiencing postpartum depression, there are some steps you can take to cope with it.
1. Try medication and psychotherapy
Typically, your healthcare professional may prescribe you selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and some antidepressant pills. However, sometimes antidepressants and SSRIs don’t necessarily deliver the expected results. When that happens, parents may feel even more helpless, which can worsen their emotions. In such times a healthcare professional may recommend Ketamine therapy. Ketamine has the property of stabilizing your mood when it is administered in small amounts. These treatments have shown phenomenal results for the treatment of postpartum depression.
If you want to see results with as little as one treatment, opt for Ketamine therapy. If you live in Chicago, simply search for ‘Ketamine therapy in Chicago’ to find a suitable healthcare provider.
Apart from that, you can also opt for psychotherapy to see faster results. Psychotherapy, also known as talk therapy or mental health counseling, can help you bring your concerns, fears, doubts, and pain to light. It can help you learn to manage your goals healthily and how you can respond to any situation positively.
2. Build a secure bond with the baby
One of the things that are most affected by postpartum depression is a mother’s bond to their baby. Depression can hinder mother and child bonding, which can affect your relationship with the baby for a long time. It will impact your ability to look after the child and yourself. Therefore, make some extra effort to connect and bond with your child.
If you do not feel a rush of overwhelming love and affection for your baby yet, then don’t be worried. You have nothing to feel guilty about since attachment can take some time. But you can take steps such as cuddling with your baby, maintaining skin-to-skin contact, giving your baby massages, singing to them, or smiling at them to ensure that your bond builds over time.
3. Take care of yourself
Just because the new baby has become the center of everyone’s attention doesn’t mean you should shy away from taking care of yourself. Taking care of yourself, your health, and needs is one of the best ways to relieve the symptoms of postpartum depression.
For this reason, improve your diet and include omega-3 in your food intake. Apart from that, take some time out for yourself to get a good night’s sleep by letting your man take care of the baby. You can also take naps while other family members look after the newborn baby. Furthermore, you should get up and take a walk in the sunshine as it will improve your mood. Lastly, don’t forget to pamper yourself by indulging in little things such asreading a book, taking a relaxing bath, or watching your favorite show every now and then. Keep in mind that the more you look after yourself, the better you will feel.
4. Ease your way into exercising
We know you are already exhausted after caring for the baby all day long. But several studies have shown that physical activity helps in combating depression. Therefore, exercising will not only help you feel better about yourself and relieve depression, but it will also give you some much-needed alone time.
Try starting with something slow and simple, like going for a walk. You can even use this as a bonding time if you take the baby in a stroller out for a walk and enjoy fresh air and nature. Aim to be active for about 30 minutes a day. Even if you don’t feel like going for a long walk, exercising for as little as 10 minutes can positively affect your mood and body. Apart from that, you can also take part in any fitness hobby, such as yoga, dance, pilates, or a spin class.
5. Build a support network
One of the major reasons why new parents fall into postpartum depression is because they lack an adequate support network. Being a human, it is natural to crave interactions and support from others. It not only reduces stress and improves mood but also helps people effectively deal with the difficulties in their life. New mothers especially need a support network because studies show that they can feel disconnected, lonely, and isolated from others after having a baby. It can lead to sleep issues, hypertension, diminished immunity, and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
For this reason, create a social network of friends and family who can provide emotional support. Apart from that, try connecting with new mothers who are going through a similar phase as yours in motherhood. It can help diminish your guilt, doubt, and worries and may help you become more confident in yourself and push you to make more efforts to connect with your baby.
Conclusion
Postpartum depression is often overlooked since people still fail to educate themselves about the hardships of a new mother. This can result in feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, fear, doubt, worry, and stress that plague a new mother. The very days and months that they were supposed to be cherishing turn into a nightmare. Therefore, the best you can do to help new mothers go through this difficult transition is to support them relentlessly and take up the responsibility of being a parent equally. Keep in mind that everything you feel is valid and does not call for any type of shaming. Therefore, surround yourself with the people you love, take care of yourself, and seek professional help if necessary.
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