Postpartum depression only scratches surface of life after pregnancy

Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba urges mothers to seek help if they are struggling with postpartum depression after pregnancy.

October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month, which seeks to honour the families who lost their children because of stillbirths, miscarriage, sudden infant death syndrome or any other cause in pregnancy or infancy.

"It is basically a physiological process that is largely driven, you know, by our biochemistry," says Marian Goldstone, the Outreach Manager of the Westman Region for the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba (MDAM). "We know that when women are expecting children, women in general, our bodies go through minefield types of experiences and changes as we start puberty and advanced towards the end of our lives, but particularly in pregnancy. So, that whole hormonal change that's going on and then following the delivery, we're right back at it again...plus, we can be predisposed to it by our genetics, by whether we've had a depressive episode prior to being pregnant or in a past pregnancy."

Goldstone has been with MDAM for five years after coming out of retirement, to help people get well, the same way she got help and got well herself. Prior to retirement, she had a background in counselling and special education and it was a course that was offered through Samaritan House in Brandon that inspired her to pursue her passion more.

"Basically, it's the same as depression. It is a period of, you know, intense loss of interest in things that we're normally interested in or we would expect to be interested in. Low mood, all kinds of things that we would typically associate with just depression only now it's postpartum, at a time when there's so much stigma in society around the joy of a new baby. It can also be triggered by some of our social stresses, what are our finances? How many children are at home? How much assistance do we have? All these things can compound into it, but it is real. It is very, very real.

However, postpartum depression is only one aspect of issues that can arise after pregnancy. Goldstone reveals that there are related disorders that are related to postpartum.

"We've talked about postpartum depression, we can actually go through postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety, postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder, and we can go through a postpartum psychosis so much deeper, much more serious consequences for that. Generally, it starts fairly soon after birth, sometimes even hours after, and yes, it gets confusing because it looks like just depression at some level. It also can look like just the effects of being tired, you know, and everyone knows that sometimes that's very easy to happen when we have a newborn, but it is a very serious situation that needs to be paid attention to."

Sometimes, the mother does not realize that what she is experiencing is a form of Postpartum disorder, whether it be depression, OCD, or any other portion, so it can fall on the family to encourage her to get the help that she needs. This means that postpartum does not only affect the mother but the family as a whole.

"Very often when you know when we're seeing the postpartum psychosis develop, very often the women themselves may not even realize that this is something that needs to be attended to, they may even be adamantly denied that there's anything that may be any issue. So, then the onus falls on the family to try to do something to try and get that person the help they need. It causes concern and worries for the children, they're not sure what's happening with mommy and why she's upset. The partner is sitting there looking and saying, oh my goodness, what happened? Everyone is affected by this."

Help is available to those who are struggling with Postpartum disorder, there are several options that people can seek out such as medication, counselling, support groups, and more.

"It depends on the severity. Some women, one in 500, may actually experience postpartum psychosis which can come on very quickly and that is an immediate trip to your doctor to actually request, if not outright insist on some kind of assessment. Sometimes postpartum psychosis requires hospitalization to keep mum and baby and family safe. There can be medications that may or may not interfere with breastfeeding or that sort of thing. It can involve counselling, it can involve peer support, it can involve family support or building a team around yourself of people to help you. So, all of those things are treatments."

The MDAM offers many resources for women struggling with postpartum. They have a Postpartum Warmline, a variety of peer support groups via online or inperson, a free postpartum depression program, among more resources.

Back in August, a Manitoba woman, Delsie Martin, who was experiencing postpartum depression reached out for help at the Neepawa Health Centre but was denied and was told that she had "no reason to be depressed."

"Unfortunately, her experience was not good and was dismissed...which to me speaks very very much to the fact that we need to be doing exactly what we're doing today, which is talking about this and getting it out there so everyone knows because even medical people, even employers, HR, partners, family, friends, there's such a gap of information for these subjects."

Goldstone asks anyone who may know Martin, to help her get in contact with her so that she can help provide resources and support.

Currently, Goldstone is working with a woman from the Shilo, MB area with creating a support group for moms and parents of young children in that rural community.

"There are some other folks out in that community as well as this woman who is a mom who has gone through postpartum herself, and we're trying to scratch away at what we're talking about and make a difference. We're hoping to have doors open on that by November 7."

For anyone who is interested in creating a peer support group in their community for postpartum depression, please contact Goldstone at westman@moodmb.ca. For more resources offered by MDAM, visit its website.