Many women feel overwhelmed, anxious, sad and various other emotions after giving birth to a baby. Within a few days, these emotions tend to go away and are symptoms of postpartum blues, or "baby blues" states the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. When these feelings and several other emotional disturbances appear, a woman is likely to have something more serious called postpartum depression. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists points out that about 10 percent of new mothers develop this condition.
Mood Swings
Some mood fluctuation after the birth of a new baby is normal. This is due to hormone changes in the woman's body, a lack of sleep and the overwhelming nature of the all the emotions that occur with becoming a mom. When the mood swings persist beyond two or three weeks, the mother may have postpartum depression. KidsHealth points out that these symptoms can appear soon after delivery, but when they continue beyond two weeks it is no longer postpartum blues. A woman's mood can shift suddenly from happy to sad or from content to irritable without an obvious reason. A mother may find herself happily holding her baby one moment and crying profusely the next.
Disinterest
When postpartum depression develops a woman will lose interest in many things that would normally be important to her. This includes eating, spending time with friends or family and sexual intercourse, according to MayoClinic.com. It is perfectly normal for a postpartum woman to participate less frequently in these activities due to her new responsibilities as a mother, but she should still be interested in trying to carry out such activities. A very dangerous and disturbing sign of postpartum depression is the mother's lack of interest in caring for the baby. A very depressed mother may completely ignore the baby, refuse to bond. She even may attempt to harm the infant. This can be a sign of a severe form of postpartum depression called postpartum psychosis. Other symptoms of this rare but extreme condition include confusion, delusions, paranoia and acts of harm toward herself or the baby.
Depression
True depression symptoms appear with postpartum depression. This includes finding little joy in life, feeling shameful, guilty inadequate or having thoughts of self-harm or harming the baby, states MayoClinic.com. Some women may cry frequently for no reason, or feel severely tired regardless of the amount of sleep she has been getting. Sleep is often interrupted or a mother develops insomnia with postpartum depression.
Persistence
Mild cases of postpartum depression may be attributed to regular "baby blues." Loved ones can help identify real postpartum depression by taking note of how long the symptoms last. Anything that lasts more than two weeks, gets worse, interferes with the care of the baby or makes it difficult for the mother to complete daily tasks should be reported to a health care professional right away.
Self-Awareness
A mother may recognize her lack of interest in things and her inability to be happy about anything. Because the birth of a new baby is supposed to be a time full of joy, the woman may not tell anyone how she feels. More severely depressed mothers may not recognize their own abnormal behavior. Loved ones and health care professionals can help to identify postpartum depression by talking frequently with the woman to get an idea of how she is feeling. She may not verbalize any of the common symptoms, but her tone, facial expressions and the topics she discusses will likely be negative instead of positive if she is suffering from depression.
