Becoming a parent comes with so many emotions and changes. I remember when I first found out I was pregnant, I felt so many different emotions I couldn’t even name all the ways I felt, from excitement, relief, to fear. I remember reading so many books and watching videos of births, but nothing really prepared me for the real life experience of the birth and the experiences that came after.
Being a parent is a significant developmental life stage and there are so many changes and transitions to make. From our bodies changing and doing different things that we didn’t know our bodies were capable of, and all the expectations we have for how life will be with baby.
We also experience loss even if we don’t realize it, the loss of our independence and the life we once had, having all the time to ourselves to do whatever we want, when we want, possibly loss of employment, maybe you worked a long time to build your career, but now you are going to be a stay at home mom. Then there’s the limited sleep, and trying to find quality time with your partner. Finding time for dates and conversations that don’t involve poop, pee, sleep, and eating are few and far between.
These adjustments and the emotions that follow can be distressing to the point of needing additional intervention. But typically women will not reach out for professional help and will try other informal ways first, as in finding support from family and friends, researching on the internet, or reading articles or books.
The barriers that keep women from reaching out for professional help include:
Stigma -their own thoughts on mental health or not trusting their healthcare professional enough to share what is really distressing to them.
May be unsure if their symptoms are normal or not
May not be able to describe how they feel, and wanting to figure it out on their own first. “I can manage this on my own”.
May not want to take psychiatric medications and afraid that if they seek out professional help they will be pressures to start medications.
Perceived lack of time
Financial reasons
Childcare
Transportation
Or location of services may not be convenient.
Often times though, perinatal distress goes untreated and undiscovered. When postpartum depression goes untreated, at least 40% of these women will continue to have symptoms throughout their child’s school years even. Perinatal distress can impede the mother-infant relationship, cause developmental issues with their child, or complications during the prenatal period.
Best practice IPT
There are specific treatment approaches that have positive outcomes in treating postpartum depression.
Interpersonal Process Therapy(IPT) has about 35 years of effectiveness treating adults with depression. Women who receive Interpersonal Process Therapy (IPT) to treat their depression have noticed improvement in their marriage, mother-child relationship and significant decrease in depressive symptoms.
Goals of IPT
Increasing social support network, while addressing loss, role changes, relationship conflicts, and interpersonal problems. It is noted that IPT can improve a person’s ability to cope with challenging situations and increase resiliency. IPT is considered one of the best treatments in addressing postpartum depression. If symptoms are more intense, best practices are a combination of IPT and medication management.
Importance of reaching out for help
If you think you are struggling with postpartum depression reach out to your primary care doctor or look into starting counseling. The benefits that you can feel better and have improvement in your marriage, personal relationships, support system, and the bonding relationship you can have with your baby are invaluable.
Learn more about the symptoms of postpartum depression here PPD
Reach out by phone 970-795-2100 or email me alison@hartmantherapyco.com
To discuss if counseling would be a good option for you.
We can even schedule a 15 minute consultation by video for you to test the process. I would send you a link and when it is our scheduled time to meet, you click on link and the consultation begins. Hope to see you there!
Reference: Bright K, Charrols E, Mughal M, Wajid A, McNeil D, Stuart S, Hayden K, & Kingston D. Interpersonal psychotherapy for perinatal women: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol (2019), open access, published online, doi:10.1186/s13643-019-1158-6