According to studies, approximately 10% to 25% of women experience depression after childbirth, which justifies the need to investigate what factors may be involved in their appearance, in order to develop preventive strategies and early diagnosis and treatment. .
As Dr. Javier Haya, from the Gynecology and Obstetrics service of the General Hospital of Ciudad Real, explains: “If you get chronified, apart from being convicted in life, your children are much more likely to suffer psychological problems in adulthood.” But, Can postpartum depression be prevented?
In that case, what factors would influence? What causes one woman to become depressed and another not? Unfortunately there is no single answer to this question and we cannot even ensure that whoever meets certain criteria will be depressed and other women will not.
However, studies conducted to date have identified a series of psychological and psychosocial variables that may contribute to the development of depression, so it would be useful to know them to be “more aware” of the women who present them and to identify “ mothers at risk. ”
Main risk factors
Some factors related to the mother herself have been identified, such as having previously suffered other depressive episodes or suicide attempts, have symptoms of anxiety and depression during pregnancy, to have psychiatric background or of abuse of toxic substances or alcohol, persistent health problems, let it be a unwanted pregnancy and some Personality traits, such as the difficulty of adapting to changes or the tendency not to express emotions, especially negative ones.
Other risk factors are related to the environment, such as having a family history of depression, lack of support perceived social and family, have lived recently stressful life events and above all, problems in the relationship with the couple.
Some studies also relate as risk factors having a low socioeconomic status, being a young mother, and having more than one child at a time, but there is controversy about its influence.
On the other hand, the role of biological factors, such as alterations in progesterone and estrogen levels, the weak secretion of corticotropin or prolactin-releasing hormone or, more recently discovered, a receptor protein, is still unclear. Gaba, which helps regulate the activity of neurons when they are activated.
What can we do to prevent it?
Fortunately, the fact that these factors may favor the onset of depression does not mean that we cannot do anything to try to avoid it. In fact, knowing them can help women and their families not to overlook symptoms that in other circumstances they might ignore, which facilitates not only prevention, but also early detection to get treatment as soon as possible.
However, not all responsibility lies with the woman or family members. It is very useful that health professionals have adequate training and training in communication skills and in the early detection of affective disorders to also facilitate early intervention.
In fact, the results of the studies suggest that it is very useful to sustained and individualized support of the woman after giving birth. Ideally, this support should be provided by a trained healthcare professional to assess the status of women repeatedly, combining questions about psychological status with others about physical status and using simple tools to identify depression.
Apart from the secondary prevention, where the objective is to locate and treat the problem as soon as possible and of the tertiary prevention, which takes place once the problem has already appeared, we must emphasize the Primary prevention, which directs its efforts to try to avoid the problem.
To do this, as the psychologist Gabriella Bianco told us in previous posts, health education and promotion strategies could be implemented from childhood and adolescence based on the needs, problems and resources available. It would also be interesting to train women to identify and manage emotions in an adaptive way (emotional intelligence).
And the woman? Can you do something to avoid postpartum depression?
People suffer when we perceive something as threatening or stressful and we feel we do not have the resources to deal with it. The arrival of a child is a situation full of changes and with a great physical and emotional burden for the mother, so having resources and implementing different coping strategies would undoubtedly favor adaptation to this period.
It is important that the mother do not abandon your care and food, get tired whenever possible and learn to delegate and ask for help, allowing himself not to do things "perfectly" and learning to express your fears and feelings.
Further, share moments of intimacy with the couple, perform rewarding activities (which can also be done at home) and even go to a breastfeeding support group It would enhance your sense of control, one of the main protective factors for the development of emotional imbalances.
Photo | by Angelo González, Jonathan Kos-Read, on Flickr In Babies and more | "Prevention is indispensable": interview with psychologist Gabriella Bianco (II), Avoid postpartum depression, Postpartum depression. Three key questions to detect it, Postpartum depression: what it is and how to recognize it
