Prenatal Depression restricts fetal growth

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In a new study published today at ScienceDirect, researchers concluded that Prenatal Depression restricts fetal growth. They also state that up to 18% of all pregnant women experience depression but when focusing specifically on lower socio-economic status and minority moms, the risk more than doubles to 40%. Babies born to depressed moms are more likely to have a smaller head circumference, low birthweight, arrive prematurely, and experience a certain level of growth retardation within their first year of life.

Many mothers, doctors, and family members will buy into the myth that all pregnant mothers are happy. Obviously the numbers beg to differ as do the mothers who experience depression during pregnancy. Moreso than mothers with Postnatal Mood Disorders, pregnant mothers struggling with depression or other mental illness face quite the quandary in seeking treatment. Many find themselves dismissed by their doctors or faced with taking anti-depressants which will affect their fetus as all medications do cross the placenta.

As with any decision, we must always remember to make an educated decision with the support of your physician and other professional advice. There are also risks v. benefits to consider. Yes, there are risks associated with taking medicine during pregnancy but most studies out there do not put this risk at a much higher rate than mothers who do not take anti-depressants.

There are resources for mothers and professionals alike to refer to when faced with this situation:

Mother Risk: A project of the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, they are staffed and well informed regarding medications, herbs, etc, in pregnancy and the postpartum breastfeeding period.

University of Illinois @ Chicago Women’s Mental Health Program is designed to meet the unique needs of women with psychiatric disorders and life problems including during pregnancy and postpartum.

The Emory Women’s Mental Health Program, established in 1991, primarily focuses on the evaluation and treatment of emotional disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The clinical program is complemented by both clinical and laboratory research into the causes of these conditions and their treatment.

I also want to take this opportunity to promote an upcoming teleclass over at Pampered Pregger and Beyond with Tiffani Lawton and Shoshana Bennett. The class starts tomorrow at 11am EST and will be taking an in depth look at her new book, Pregnant on Prozac. I would highly recommend participating if this topic is near and dear to your heart. Registration at the site is not required but the call is a long distance one. Callers will be muted during discussion and unmuted for Q&A so if you have little ones running around, don’t worry – they won’t be interrupting the flow. For more information, click here.

The Misnomer of Postpartum Depression

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Not terribly long ago, Katherine Stone wrote a beautiful diatribe directed at the media regarding the misuse of the term Postpartum Depression.

Just like Katherine, I too have Google Alerts set to scour the web for anything Postpartum or Perinatal related and blessedly I get about 10-15 emails every day. (I LOVE Google!) I must admit that I found myself highly irritated when people misuse the term Postpartum Depression. One particular post used the term Postpartum Depression to describe how the author felt after seeing his car driven into a car wash. Really? REALLY? Then there’s the CNN story Katherine mentions in her post, What do you do about post-election blues? What DO you do when a reputable agency such as CNN misuses the term? Are you glad the term is on their radar at least? Or do you get frustrated about the application and trivial way in which our experience with hell has now been marginalized? Or do you settle on somewhere in between? I had done the latter until yesterday.

What happened to change my mind?

I received an email as a result of my Community Leader position for the Postpartum Depression board over at iVillage. Hidden away in my Spam folder, it went unnoticed for a couple days but finally got read last night.

The email started out innocently enough and asked for casual conversation off-board, something I do quite often for the ladies there because I am all too familar with the stigma and the possibility that there may be some things they don’t want to lay out in public. The sender went on to describe a pretty difficult situation and as I read I kept waiting for the baby to pop into the equation. When I got to the end of the email, there was no baby and now I was expected to share some advice. I re-read the email a few times to make sure I hadn’t missed anything and became confused as to why I had been chosen as a recipient.

I emailed her back with instruction to speak with her mental health caregivers and some general advice. I apologized that I didn’t quite understand why she had emailed me in the first place.

This morning I had a response.

The response made me drop my jaw in awe.

The sender legitimately thought Postpartum Depression was the term for what one feels after experiencing any big event. To steal a line from Hannah Montana, “Mama Say What?”

How could I be upset with her about this? I emailed her back with a brief description of Post-Traumatic vs. Postpartum Depression and promptly came here to blog about the experience.

Let me make this CLEAR.

  • Something traumatic happens to you that DOES NOT INVOLVE BIRTH and you have issues afterwards. This is Post-Traumatic.
  • YOU GIVE BIRTH and feel sad, anxious, panicked, etc, at any time during the first year after giving birth and that is POSTPARTUM DEPRESSION.
  • Your car is driven into a car wash and you feel a tug at your heart. This is just SAD or wistful. It is NOT depressed – not plain depressed, not depressed with a dose of postpartum on top, not depressed with other co-existing conditions. It is just SAD.
  • The campaign is over and you don’t know what to do because you have to unplug from CNN. Time to find a new hobby, not time to claim you have Postpartum Depression.

Media, general public, bloggers, medical professionals, nurses, and whomever else I have missed, please take note of this. Don’t marginalize the hell those of us who have suffered from Postpartum Depression have been through and have miraculously managed to claw our way into the light. My hands are still dirty from that journey and I don’t think they’ll ever get really clean. And no, I’m not ashamed of my “dirt.” I just don’t want anyone else playing with it.

(Addendum here – I’ve started a feature called PPD Misnomer Sightings. The link is over to your right under the Pages section. If you come across any misuse of the term, please email it to me to have it posted there. I’ve already had one sighting today. Infuriating, isn’t it?)

Blogs as Peer Support for PPD

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With the recent release of the study regarding how helpful peer support is for women with Postpartum Depression, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at blogging as a form of peer support. The source of inspiration for this piece? An article by Kristin Schorsch over at the South Town Star about blogging and PPD in which yours truly is featured along with Natalie Dombrowski.

Many of the women I know who have blogs and have recovered from Postpartum Depression have found their blogging habit to be a powerful source of support. Those who read them undoubtedly feel the same way, finding strength and hope in the words that part ways with those of us who have been through the very dark in which they now find themselves enrobed.

For me, there was relief in knowing I had my blog to lean on and that through my blog I was potentially helping other families survive the very same thing I struggled against. I credit my blogging as a tremendous part of not experiencing PPD the third time around. After all, I had numerous risk factors according to several different studies and statistics.

My first risk factor lied within being a two time survivor. A third episode lies in a nearly 100% risk range. Studies have also shown that women who give birth to boys are more likely to experience Postpartum Depression than mothers who give birth to girls. My third child? A boy. I also had extenuating stressors – a marriage that was dashed onto the rocks at just 3 months postpartum after giving birth to Cameron and financial stressors to boot. Last but not least, women who experience severe pelvic pain during pregnancy are also more likely to suffer from Postpartum Depression. And guess what? I had severe pelvic pain with all three but it was the worst with Cameron. Relying solely on numbers, I should have suffered from Postpartum Depression with Cameron. Yet I didn’t.

Why?

I had peer support, social support, medication, education, blogging, meetings, advocacy, and preparation on my side.

But hey, I had all that too you say. And I still ended up suffering. Unfortunately this is where it gets tricky. What works for one woman in one situation may not work for another woman in her situation.

Why? We don’t necessarily know. What we do know is that communication with other women and TRAINED medical professionals is key to recovery. This is where I get on my soapbox.

The MOTHER’S Act would allow for research funding so we might be able to find these things out. It would also allow funding for additional social and community support programs to be implemented across the country so that no family would have to suffer silently. It would allow for women to speak up without fear about their intrusive thoughts, to admit they are not happy at a time when they feel they should be. It would educate caregivers so no more women would have to be fear being dismissed when they do speak up, as I was. It would decrease potentially lethal cases of untreated Postpartum Depression and catch episodes of Postpartum Psychosis before they reached the breaking point.

The MOTHER’S Act would finally allow for the recognition of Postpartum Mood Disorders as a true illness, allowing for the flow of ideas and treatment options between patients and clinicians to open up. It would allow us to finally create treatment networks between Pediatricians, OB’s, Therapist, Psychologists, and Psychiatrists, keeping women from slipping through the cracks and confused about which medical professional to talk with regarding their emotions.

The passage of the MOTHER’S Act would allow those of us who have survived and those of us who are still struggling to finally begin to live over the rainbow, where we deserve to live. Where there is finally acceptance, happiness, and true hope instead of disapproval, sadness, and despair that permeates the lives of so many women and families fighting to rid themselves of the beast of Postpartum Depression.

Off the soapbox now.

I blog to provide the land over the rainbow for myself and for others. We’ve fought hard enough against the rain on our own. Nothing more, nothing less. Providing hope to those who struggle behind me, those deserving of a helping hand as they claw furiously against the muddy wall of the hole they now find themselves lost inside.

We all deserve the rainbow.

Thankful

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Today I am thankful to be here. Yesterday during nap, Charlotte nearly burned the house down.

She wrapped the heater in her sheet and mattress pad. Then she knocked it over with her mattress, leaving the mattress on top. It began to smoke and overheat. I was asleep on the couch in the living room with the dogs. Fortunately Maggie woke up and went crazy when she heard the heater crash onto the floor. I got up and looked out the front door to see if anyone was here because that’s why she usually barks. No one was here so I went back to lay down

Then Charlotte called me to tell me she needed to be cleaned up. I called back and told her I’d be right there, dragged myself off the couch and headed back. I was absolutely livid at what I found. At first I couldn’t tell it was smoking because there was sunlight streaming into their room and it just looked like dust particles. But then I smelled it. And realized I couldn’t see the heater.

I have never moved so fast in my entire life. I have also never yelled so loudly in my life.

Charlotte was in time out the rest of the afternoon and unfortunately has spent the bulk of today in time out as well because she chose to remove her mattress yet again. I have a feeling I’m going to end up custom-making a mattress pad to encompass both the boxspring and mattress for her bed – complete with zippers and locks. I don’t see how else we get her to stop this behavior.

We’re completely baffled. We know she’s exercising her boundaries, testing her limits. Yet here we are. The word “No” has no meaning for her. Endangering the lives of others also means nothing to her. I’m officially scared of what she might do next and I am not comfortable being here.