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Spanking a surprising side-effect of father depression.
Experts are starting to recognize what many families have known firsthand: that men and partners are susceptible to post-partum depression, too.
A new study on fathers found that men who experienced some type of baby blues were at some significant risk of spanking their 1-year-olds. Continue reading »
Turns out, she's human
In the February issue of Good Housekeeping, Gwyneth Paltrow opens up about her struggle with postpartum depression after the birth of her second child, Moses.
With her first baby, Apple, she says she felt blissful and happy, and expected things to go similarly after her second delivery. Instead, months into her son’s life her husband Chris Martin knew something was wrong and kept approaching Paltrow about it. The idea that she could have postpartum depression didn’t really land with her, because she assumed to suffer with it meant sobbing continuously and being incapacitated — that wasn’t her.
Instead, here’s how she described it: Continue reading »
Stories of postpartum depression
I was reading Katherine Stone’s Postpartum Progress blog this week — one of my favorites for keeping up with research in the field and personal stories of moms struggling with PPD. She has a great list of her top 10 postpartum depression stories from 2010 — the most commented-on and widely-read. It’s really worth reading for a snapshot of the year in the field.
And one story caught my eye “Should Moms Be Required to Keep their Newborns in Their Hospital Rooms?”
It started with a mom’s story from a New York City hospital, in which she was denied her request to have the baby taken care of in the nursery, even for an hour, so she could get some rest. Continue reading »
Mom gives up custody of baby in bout of PPD
An article in Time yesterday highlighted the role that postpartum depression played in the tragic case of Zahra Baker, the North Carolina child whose remains were found recently.
Her biological mother, Emily Dietrich, of New South Wales Australia, says that a severe case of postpartum depression is what made her decide to give over custody to Adam Baker when Zahra was a baby. She later regretted her decision and tried to track her daughter down, but she did so only a few days before her daughter was reported missing.
Katherine Stone, author of the popular Postpartum Progress blog, says that while the idea of giving up a child for adoption because of symptoms of PPD is rare, it’s not the first time she’s heard this story: Continue reading »
Less talked-about, equally critical
A story to run on Australian TV this weekend highlights a rare but devastating condition that affects some moms after birth. Postpartum psychosis is thankfully less common than depression, but the stakes tend to be higher.
The father profiled is Craig, whose partner Emily was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis shortly after their son was born. She had a normal pregnancy and delivery, but after they got home from the hospital, she started seeing “auras” and believing that her breast milk could save the world.
After that, she sank into a deep sadness and became disconnected from everyone, including her family. One day Craig came home and found she had killed herself. Continue reading »
Help following birth
In the U.S., there’s bragging rights for the moms who get up and kick around a soccer ball in the hours after birth. Whether or not it’s a good idea, we are a nation somewhat in denial about the physicality of birth (see also: 6-week maternity leave as luxury).
For centuries, Chinese women underwent “confinement” after the birth of a child. During that month, the postpartum mother took to her bed while her own mother and female relatives cooked and cleaned for her, and generally tried to keep a “bad wind” from entering the body. Bathing, teeth-brushing, eating cold food or even crying were strictly off-limits. Even allowing strangers into the home was too risky. Continue reading »
The research on parents who are depressed is overwhelming. To cite just one long-term study of adults who grew up with depressed parents, they suffered three times the rate of anxiety disorders and depression by their 30s compared to kids whose parents had no mental disorders, they were in poorer health and were much more likely to be dependent on drugs and alcohol.
That’s, well, that’s depressing. But the good news is that there’s growing evidence that the effects of having a depressed parent are reversible, according to this LA Times report. Continue reading »
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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