A post partum Question

Hey everyone, Just here visiting from the expecting forum and have a question. I see the link above about post partum andI will check it out. My question is Did anyone suffer from PP two times and was it worse the second go round? I suffered after my daughter was born and actually went on anti depressants... I also used exercisize and got off meds with in a year. I have heard it can be worse the second time around and I have even had one doc recomend going on meds before the babies are born! I am opting to wait until after they are born hoping that i will not even go through it this time. I am "older and wiser" now and alot of my anxiety was due to nursing problems (which I think I can def. overcome this time) and other personal stuff. Any advice would be great... thanks ladies!!

 

Hey everyone, Just here visiting from the expecting forum and have a question. I see the link above about post partum andI will check it out. My question is Did anyone suffer from PP two times and was it worse the second go round? I suffered after my daughter was born and actually went on anti depressants... I also used exercisize and got off meds with in a year. I have heard it can be worse the second time around and I have even had one doc recomend going on meds before the babies are born! I am opting to wait until after they are born hoping that i will not even go through it this time. I am "older and wiser" now and alot of my anxiety was due to nursing problems (which I think I can def. overcome this time) and other personal stuff. Any advice would be great... thanks ladies!!

 

Briana, this is a good question. I am fascinated to find out with you!

I know this is just a random thing, but didn't Brooke Shields have NO depression after her 2nd? So it is possible that you won't need anything, I suppose!

 

Diane, I heard Brooke Shields was fine the second time around... but I know that woman (in texas i believe) that drowned her five kids blamed post partum (and the fact that it increasingly got worse each pg). Now I dont know if that is really the case, I believe there had to be other mental issues there. I will clarify, I have only had one pg (I try not to differenciate, but Taylor and Siera are my step daughters) and I never had any thoughts of violence with my PPD. I was just severe high anxiety... and I really felt sorry that my daughter had to have ME as a mother... really weird feelings. Diet and Exersize work (okay Tom Cruise we'llgive you that) but I am so gald that I was open to meds also, they really helped me enjoy my daughter as an infant. I am also wondering if anyone can say if twins were worse or better along the PPD lines??

 

The major difference for Brooke Shields is that her first baby was through fertility treatments and #2 is not.

I have no experience with a 2nd time around but I did have PPD after my twins. And I think that if I had more children running around I would have felt it more intensely, which is the reason I see that the woman in TX would have been in the psychotic state. But there is a huge difference between PPD and post-partum psychosis.....

I don't know if that was helpful, hopefully someone with more experience will be able to help.

 

I don't know much about PPD, so I'm not 100% sure the answer to your question, but I have heard that it's very possible to get depressed the first time and not second time around (PPD is also influenced by life circumstances, current health etc).

Although taking antidepressants now may not be an option, if you know that you have a tendency, you can take other steps now to try to circumvent it - even if it happens, maybe you'll be able to minimise it.

The kind of things I had in mind were:

most importantly, make sure your iron levels are very good NOW - there's a link between low iron during / after the birth and PPD;

try to set up good support for the early weeks after the birth (the first couple of months) - maybe, if it's affordable, get a babysitter/relative in to mind the children for an hour or two a couple of afternoons a week (or more). this'll give you some time away from the children (or at least the youngest two) for you / you and your elder child, something to look forward to (even a bath);

if being exhausted exacerbated the depression before, would it be possible to have someone (DH?) take some of the night feeds? or when our girls were born, DH would take them for a walk in the pram in the evening so I could sleep and then I would walk them from 5 am so he could sleep then.

try to get out (preferably into the fresh air if it's not too cold/hot) every day after the birth - a short walk or something;

if you get the 'baby blues' soon after the birth, don't panic and assume this is the PPD returning. try to accept that this is your hormones playing havoc, that almost everybody experiences this and that it WILL pass relatively quickly.


lisa

 

I had PPD after Dave was born, but not after Emma or the twins. I hope you have a better luck this time and don't have any problems.