After giving birth, the responsibility of being a parent, worries about childcare, and balancing it all with housework can wear out both your mind and body. Postpartum depression is a type of depression in which you feel low or irritable. Besides these emotional symptoms, physical symptoms such as headaches and insomnia can also appear.
Postpartum depression can become severe in a relatively short time, so it needs attention.
In this article, we explain each of the possible causes of postpartum depression.
Causes of postpartum depression
- Cause 1: Anxiety about childcare
- Cause 2: Chronic lack of sleep and fatigue
- Cause 3: Lack of understanding and support from family
- Cause 4: The change in feelings that comes with becoming a mother
- Cause 5: Stress from the people around you
- Cause 6: Past experience of depression
Postpartum depression can be triggered by just one of these. If several causes apply to you, take extra care.
Cause 1: Anxiety about childcare
Caring for a baby takes up a large part of your mind on its own. While handling feeding, diapers, bathing and everything else a baby needs, you also have to teach your child as they grow and keep up with housework. Among all these tasks, you may worry about whether you can manage childcare and fulfill your responsibilities, take on things you don't need to carry, and end up with a head full of tasks. Everyone is different, but each of us has a limit to how much we can think about. It is no exaggeration to say that going beyond that limit causes mental strain.Cause 2: Chronic lack of sleep and fatigue
After birth, until the baby is about three months old, you need to feed every two to three hours. That makes it hard to get enough sleep and rest. Lack of sleep easily amplifies mental distress, leaving you exhausted in both mind and body.
Cause 3: Lack of understanding and support from family
With fatigue building up in a stressful situation, has an inescapable responsibility become a heavy weight? When you are also in an environment where others find it hard to understand, you tend to sink deeper into postpartum depression. Even when you open up to your parents or husband about how hard it is, not being understood becomes another source of stress, and before you notice how much fatigue has built up, you fall into a depressed state.Cause 4: The change in feelings that comes with becoming a mother
After giving birth, some people can't keep up with the change in feelings that comes with becoming a mother.You have to take on the role of "mother," which is different from who you were before. Until you get used to it, not being able to live as you used to can feel stressful. You may often spend the whole day alone with your baby, and feelings of isolation from society and loneliness can lead to postpartum depression.
Cause 5: Stress from the people around you
After giving birth, a mother is doing everything she can to care for her baby. So when others disrupt her pace or say thoughtless things, she feels more stressed than usual. She may even close her heart to people close to her, such as her husband or parents.
Cause 6: Past trauma or experience of depression
If you have past trauma, or had depression before or during pregnancy, you are more likely to develop postpartum depression.
If you have a history of depression, telling your doctor or midwife in advance lets you plan ahead together.
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