Postpartum depression is the depression and anxiety that some women experience in the weeks and months after giving birth. It's a result of the hormonal changes that follow delivery combined with changes in lifestyle and emotional turmoil. Because postpartum depression is serious and significant, you can't and shouldn't try to treat it with vitamins.
Postpartum Depression
Postpartum depression results from many factors that come together after the birth of a baby. Whether you've just had your first baby or your fourth, bringing a new baby into the family results in a period of upheaval and adjustment. Your hormone levels plummet, resulting in emotional and physical changes. You're also exhausted, both from delivery and due to the new baby. As a result, you can become susceptible to feelings of depression.
Symptoms
Most women feel blue or weepy for several days -- even a few weeks -- after the birth of a baby. This mild emotional disruption is called baby blues or postpartum blues -- it's not true postpartum depression. According to MayoClinic.com, postpartum depression symptoms are more significant and longer lasting than those of baby blues and include frequent crying, significant anxiety, difficulty sleeping or concentrating, and irritability or feelings of disengagement.
Vitamins
While you may know that vitamins are good for your health, they're not medicine; you can't take them to treat problems that aren't caused by vitamin deficiency. Postpartum depression isn't the result of vitamin deficiency, meaning that vitamins will have no effect upon it. In very general terms, vitamins help your cells engage in the reactions they need to run to process energy, but they're not helpful in treating any sort of mental health issue.
Guidelines
If you think you have postpartum depression, it's important that you don't remain silent about it or try to treat it on your own using vitamins. Call your obstetrician or talk to your child's pediatrician; either can help you get the help you need. Treatment options might include talking to a therapist, joining a support group of other postpartum women or using pharmaceutical antidepressants; your doctor can help you find the right course of treatment.
References
- MayoClinic.com: Postpartum Depression
- "You: Having A Baby"; Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.; 2009
- "What You Didn't Think to Ask Your Obstetrician"; Raymond Poliakin, M.D.; 2007
