Baby blues: lots of tears in the postpartum period
After birth and the expulsion of the placenta, the hormone levels in your body change very quickly and sometimes suddenly. In the first few days, some women are still high on their own endorphins and feel as if they could tear down trees despite the birth experience. However, just a few days later, this state usually changes rapidly and many, many tears flow. Some women also report feeling sad or melancholy, are sometimes irritated by their baby, unstable and overwhelmed by the whole situation and cry a lot. In addition, great worry (usually about the child), increased anxiety and irritability, a certain restlessness, exhaustion and difficulty concentrating can occur.
This is quite normal and has many different names such as crying days, baby blues and postpartum depression. Hormonally, these days usually occur around the third to fifth day after birth, when your endorphin levels drop. In addition, your progesterone and estrogen levels drop - hormones that ensured a more balanced mood during pregnancy. However, all of this does not always happen as orderly as it may seem here, but is rather chaotic and varies from woman to woman.
All this hormonal chaos is also unfolding in the midst of your new living conditions. You may be suffering from a severe lack of sleep, pain from the birth injuries and your deteriorating body, and emotionally overwhelmed by the birth, the end of your pregnancy and your child; all of this is intense and a lot and sometimes (or always) you just have to cry. And there is no need for any good reason at all for this, just tiny little things that open the floodgates: The friend who writes you a sweet message that is much too sweet: and you cry. The partner who brings you an ice cream, but unfortunately the wrong kind: and you cry. The calendula essence that the midwife recommended and that you now have to mix with water - how are you supposed to manage that? And you cry. And your helpless baby, so small and delicate and no longer in your belly, so beautiful and sad at the same time: and you cry. And we cry with you, all the tears in the world.
Fortunately, this condition often only lasts a few hours or days and goes away on its own without any further treatment. Depending on the study, 50-80% of all women are affected by this mood swing, which is not classified as an illness because it usually goes away quickly. In our view, there is nothing you can do except let your tears flow freely and demand understanding from those around you. It can help to tell the people who are with you during the postpartum period about these days beforehand so that you don't have to explain yourself while crying. And it's also good to know: not all women find the hormonal changes so intense; for some, they even pass more or less unscathed. Others, however, cannot get over the baby blues that we have so humorously described here, even after a few days.
What is postpartum depression?
If sadness manifests itself during the postpartum period and does not disappear after a few days, it may be due to postpartum depression (postnatal depression). This term covers all depressive illnesses that occur in the first two years after birth.
Unfortunately, diagnosis can be difficult because the disease develops gradually and symptoms are not always clearly identifiable. Basically, postnatal depression behaves similarly to a depressive illness that occurs independently of the birth of a child. However, there are some special features that are described by affected women and their partners, who can also suffer from postpartum depression, as follows: strong emotional instability, ambivalent feelings about their own child up to numbness, excessive anxiety and worry about the child, fear of failure and strong thoughts and doubts about their own ability as a mother, obsessive thoughts and breastfeeding problems. Symptoms that can also occur with other depressive illnesses are a feeling of inner emptiness accompanied by severe sadness, general hopelessness, lack of energy and apathy. Physical symptoms such as headaches, pain and discomfort in the heart, extreme irritability, numbness especially in the hands, feet, arms and legs can also occur. Those affected also report loss of sexual desire, tremors, difficulty concentrating, sleep problems, dizziness, anxiety and panic attacks.
We describe the possible symptoms of such an illness in such detail here because we want to encourage you to talk openly about your feelings and physical complaints. We know that unfortunately it is sometimes not easy to confide in others about possible negative feelings after giving birth. We just want to tell you that you are not alone: 10-15% of women and 5% of partners are affected by manifest postpartum depression.
