Can a Mother’s Depression affect her Baby?

Can a Mother’s Depression affect her Baby?

Have you seen a depressed mother? Did you wonder if it could affect her baby? The answer is: yes, it does, but there is a solution to it too. The question is what is Maternal Depression? Maternal depression comes from the birth of your child. Sometimes these symptoms might occur during pregnancy.

There are three types of maternal Depression:

1.   Baby blues: is short in time but very intense, they happen when a mother’s milk comes in. Also, in that stage a mother finds herself very sad, moody, or sometimes anxious. This type is normal since it is caused by hormonal changes which within few days’ stop appearing. In case they last for more than two weeks then there would be a probability of a depression illness.

2.   Postpartum depression: is a depression that comes after the period of baby blues, it can happen anytime during the year after giving birth. Statistics state that 1 out of 10 mothers would experience postpartum depression. Questions that come along when a mother is depressed are like “I have so many reasons to be happy, why do I feel so sad?”, others may feel guilty, angry, or even have an anxiety. Also, other mothers might have fear on how to protect their baby from all the dangers in the world. Other symptoms are change in eating, sleeping, making decisions, thoughts of death, or even concentrating.

3.   Postpartum psychosis: is a very severe form of postpartum depression. When a mother gets this kind of depression then she has a distorted thinking. She might be having delusions or hear voices that are not real. This kind of depression needs an immediate medical attention. According to studies that have been made by the University of Minnesota, they state that “This condition is rare — only one in 1000 women experience these symptoms. However, if left untreated, postpartum psychosis may have tragic consequences for both mother and child.”.

-  How Can these depressions Affect your Child?

A depressed mother will eventually lead to doubting. She will doubt herself, and she will doubt her ability to take care of her baby. Sometimes she might feel hopeless to silence her baby when he/she cries. She will be impatient and at other times angry or have a hard time managing her feelings. A baby might cry and fuss more when he is observing such actions. This will result to the mother’s overthinking of her baby being fussy. She might think that she is not capable of comforting her own child. This could result in the baby’s difficulty of eating or sleeping, it may even result in a child’s delay in development. Toddlers of severely depressed mothers may look depressed or angry, may be anxious, aggressive, clingy, or have difficulty concentrating.

- How Can a Mother Get Help for Depression?

First thing to do after a baby’s six-week check-up is to visit a medical doctor to the mother, by then the depression will have a clear definition. Learning the case and symptoms the doctor will treat it or provide a referral to a mental health professional. Moreover, treatments for depression include medication, therapy, and support groups.

-  How Can Friends and Family Help?

Ideas on how to support a mother with depression:

1.      Help her to seek help and treatments.

2.      Help her take care of herself such as, doing a diet, exercising, meditation, a day out free of your child, pampering day.

3.      Babysitting the children for the mother’s day out.

4.      Help build happy interactions between the mother and child.