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Postpartum Depression is very common and treatable mood disorder that occurs in women shortly after giving birth.

It’s a result of the chemical changes in the body as it tries to transition from the high hormone levels of pregnancy to it’s pre-pregnancy state. Oftentimes the body has difficulty getting it “right” fluctuating up and down with abnormal levels.

Sleep deprivation, lack of support from others in the family and caring for additional/older children at the same time exacerbates the problem and could place a bigger burden on your endocrine system, making this transition much more difficult than it needs to be.. After a few weeks though, most women’s bodies do tend to settle down and go back to normal.

Take a look at the list below. These are signs of postpartum depression. You could experience one or several. The key to deciding if you do have post partum depression is if these symptoms have started since the recent birth of your child and if they are continuing on past the first month. Typical postpartum depression often called “ The baby blues” subsides by then. Postpartum depression goes beyond. Here’s what to look out for:

1. Are you crying for no reason? Does everything feel like it has this bleak grey cover around it. Feeling overly sad, hopeless, guilty or empty with no real “why” is common.

2. Feeling trapped and overwhelmed. Wanting to run away, disappear, go to sleep.

3. Anxiety over simply tasks and chores that didn’t used to trigger you before ( like washing dishes, calling a friend or going shopping)

4. Experiencing a loss of pleasure in normal day – day events. What would normally make you smile now blows right by without a notice. Some women even lose interest in their own child. The coo’s and precious moments that should be cherished are not noticed.

5. Changes in eating and weight. Some women start to not eat like they should and begin to lose weight. This also causes a drop in energy levels on top of the already tired one because the body is now being malnourished. Even more so if the mother is breast feeding her child.

5-B) Alternatively, some women tend to go the other way and eat eat eat .. trying to sooth that empty anxious gnawing in their stomach with food. Instead of relief, weight gain usually is the reward – possibly leading to a deeper depression.

6. Sleeping problems. Are you sleeping way too much for this stage of your motherhood? – or are you not sleeping at all. Spending your nights lying awake crying or wishing you were somewhere else?

7. Lack of focus/concentration and memory. Are you forgetting why you went to the kitchen? Did you eat dinner? How do I change this diaper again? Simple, normal every day things you “know” you sometimes don’t know (though I think most of us suffer from this one without any depression at all!)

8. Always tired. Of course you’re always tired, you just had a baby and your chemicals are all  out of wack!

So if you are experiencing one or more of these symptoms/signs of postpartum depression on a continued basis ( doesn’t have to be EVERY day, but do they keep coming back over and over again? ) Then it’s time to look into ways of treating this condition so you can on with your life and your kids life and enjoy what you have worked so hard to get!

Consider calling your doctor for an appointment to see if he/she can recommend a pharmaceutical to ease you through this transition.. For those of you who do not like medication for depression and prefer a more natural route, you can look into alternative remedies, herbs and practices that are known to help.

There are many self help books, eBooks and programs you can buy or even rent from a library that could give you the knowledge, direction and boost! to conquer this disappointing condition. It’s not hopeless.

There is a fix, many of them. Just choose your direction and go get it!!

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