by Ellen Seidman, writer of 1,000 Perplexing Things About Parenthood and Love That Max

“Maybe you need some antidepressants.”

That was my doctor talking to me the year I had my son. I rarely went to see her for a physical, but I was totally run down and thinking I had take care of myself because I had a baby to care for—in a major way. My son, Max, had brain damage. He had a stroke at birth (yes, babies can have strokes), and was at risk for not walking or talking, cognitive impairment, even vision and hearing loss. It was a big-ass stroke that had hit both sides of his baby brain.

Those months after Max’s birth were the hardest ones of my life. I was getting used to being a mom (and the sleepless nights), having trouble breastfeeding, grappling with the grief. Nobody could tell me what Max would be like, and that terrified me. I just wanted to know. I spent the majority of my maternity leave going to doctor appointments, arranging to get Max therapy through our state’s Early Intervention program, researching strokes and seeing if there were experimental treatments to try. That winter was one of the coldest, snowiest ones on record, and our house never felt warm or bright. I’d stroll around with Max strapped to my chest in a Baby Bjorn, the only way he would take naps, feeling the chill—and the dread of the future.

Continue reading »

Tweet

4

Pin It

That tiny amygdala gets a whole lot bigger in kids when mom's depressed.

Most studies looking at the physical effects maternal depression has on the children of depressed women focus on the hippocampus, an area of the brain in charge of memories. In people who suffer from depression, the hippocampus tended to be smaller than average.

But a new study looking at the children of depressed women found a different reshaping of the brain. Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It

Postpartum Clinic is Here to Help New Moms

There are clinics for this, and clinics for that, so it is pretty damn surprising that the very first free-standing post partum depression clinic in the country is finally opening this week. Why wasn’t there one before? With so many women falling victim to issues after having their babies, it’s a shock that not only has there not been a clinic specializing in postpartum depression before, but that they aren’t all over. Hopefully, this is something that is going to change.

Starting this week, the University of North Carolina hospital in Chapel Hill will be home to the nation’s first “free-standing perinatal psychiatry unit.” Will this be the first of many? Continue reading »

Tweet

6

Pin It

Would you like a baby with that?

From the “news story that would be funny if it wasn’t so sad” files, a 36-year-old Vancouver woman, Heidi Lynn Knowles, allegedly tried to sell her three-day-old baby boy at a Taco Bell restaurant for $500 – $5000.

Apparently, she did not pick the right buyer: when she approached the customer, handed her the baby and offered to sell him, the customer didn’t take her up on the offer (imagine that!) and instead, called the police, who tracked Knowles to a nearby motel. Continue reading »

Tweet

8

Pin It

Mother’s Day is ideally a time for the whole world to bow at our maternal feet and finally acknowledge the myriad ways in which we improve their lives immeasurably.  But the reality of mothers’ day does not always live up to ones hopes. Those  lovely cards and hugs are followed by the same tantrums and power struggles and crankiness that make up our inherently imperfect lives with children.

Motherhood is awesome, but it’s tough work. I love, love, love being a mother, but when my kids were babies it was a lot harder for me to say that wholeheartedly.  I had a tough transition. I was anxious and stressed, and yes,depressed.I was  generally just having a lot less fun than I expected.My experience made me want to reinforce to moms that motherhood can be a mixed bag, and that acknowledging the bad parts doesn’t mean you’re not grateful for all the gifts that come along with it.

Which is why I was so happy to have this incredible opportunity to tell my story.

Continue reading »

Tweet

0

Pin It

The greatest mother that ever lived? She thinks so.

I’ve made no secret of my dislike for Gisele Bundchen, she of the super sanctimommy variety.

Remember this?  “Some people here think they don’t have to breastfeed, and I think, ‘Are you going to give chemical food to your child, when they are so little?’ There should be a worldwide law, in my opinion, that mothers should breastfeed their babies for six months.”

Oh, it didn’t stop there.  About her home birth in a bathtub, Gisele told People, “…it wasn’t painful, not even a little bit…  The second day, I was walking, I was washing dishes, I was making pancakes in the kitchen,” she says with a laugh.

It’s celebrity moms like Gisele that do a disservice to mothers everywhere.  Does she have absolutely no concept of how sanctimonious she sounds?  Guess not.  Neither does Gwyneth Paltrow who, on her website GOOP, dispenses a wealth of advice for the world’s wealthiest 1%. Continue reading »

Tweet

4

Pin It

A new study finds that women who give birth in the fall and winter are more likely to experience postpartum depression

Could longer, darker days be a trigger for postpartum depression? Yes, according to the results of a new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Women who give birth in the fall and winter months are more prone to experience severe baby blues.

A group in Sweden at Uppsala University asserts that the amount of daylight in the seasons affect chemical pathways in the brain that are related to depression.

More than 2,000 women who gave birth over a 1-year period were studied, and out of every 100 mothers, between 6 and 15 reportedly complained of postpartum depression symptoms according to the amount of time that had passed since they gave birth and the season in which they did it.

Continue reading »

Tweet

2

Pin It