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Motherhood has always been about joy, pride and infinite selfless love. But nobody talks about the other side, the part where nine months later- you're left with your hormones playing havoc, your body changed, and the sudden responsibilities thrust on you. While most symptoms like- irritability, emotional instability and fatigue in new mothers is attributed to “baby blues”, in many cases the reason is much more severe.
To understand the symptoms and implications of postpartum depression, The Quint spoke to three new mothers who have battled the condition. According to the World Health Organisation, one in every five mothers in India battle postpartum depression. About 90% of mothers don’t receive any treatment for it.
“When someone gets pregnant, they go through a lot of turmoil. Even if they are showing symptoms after having their baby, we attribute it to the pregnancy, labour and childbirth and neglect the symptoms. The initials symptoms are that the person isn’t happy about the baby being born. The mother doesn’t feel a connect with the baby,” says Mumbai based psychiatrist, Dr Sagar Mundada. While these signs are not always apparent, certain symptoms are.
For 25-year-old Vidhi, depression set in over a month after she gave birth to her daughter. The only reason she was able to detect and act on it was because her mother suffered from the same condition and was diagnosed years after it set in.
For mother of two, Suchita Malaviya, postpartum depression hit her after the birth of her second child.
“One of the reasons for postpartum depression is genetic. If someone in the family has had depression down the line, then the chances increase. Second, is lack of family support during pregnancy. Some people do not support the woman during her nine months of pregnancy. This could be a triggering factor,” says Dr Sagar Mundada, citing the most common causes of postpartum depression.
While all the three mothers we spoke to have recovered, or are well on the way of recovering from postpartum depression, they are still taking precautions to ensure it doesn’t affect them again.
Camera: Sanjoy Deb
Camera Assistant: Gautam Sharma
Editor: Ashish Maccune
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Published: 28 Jun 2018,11:01 AM IST