Only natural mothers get Postpartum Mood Disorders, right? Not so fast there… Mothers who adopt are also vulnerable although as an overall group the rate is typically lower than that of natural mothers. Yet it’s still there – the sleepless nights, the anxiety, the panic that sets in when given the care of a newborn child. And for Adoptive mothers, there’s the added pressure of feeling that they have to PROVE to everyone they are truly worthy of parenting this little creature with whom they’ve been entrusted. So these mothers are even more likely to hide their suffering to keep their babies from being taken from them after they’ve gone through so many hoops to get bring their precious angels home.

Read one adoptive mother’s experience from “Singing the Post-Adoption Blues”, an article written by Limor Gal at Haaretz.com, the online version of an Israeli newspaper:

“The first time I stayed alone with her, after a month when there had been people in the house all the time, I suddenly understood that this was not a doll that you put on the shelf and then go to sleep. It’s a little girl, she’s mine, and I have to take care of her. Suddenly I understood that it was a lifetime responsibility, and I wasn’t prepared for it. These were the first signs of the shock and the depression that followed.”

As Post-Adoption Depression is slowly being recognized, one doctor in the article states:

“The phenomenon is at a stage where postpartum depression was in the in the past,” says child and youth psychiatrist Dr. Miri Keren, director of the department for infants at the Geha Psychiatric Hospital in Petah Tikva. “There is almost no research information about it; in effect it is not yet really defined, and there is little awareness of its existence.”

These moms need our support too. It’s not just about supporting natural moms. It’s about supporting EVERY mom.