How to prevent/deal with postnatal depression

genetic factors + environmental factors + personality and coping Genetic factors can be seen from family history of mental health conditions, although genes also interact with environment so it's not a standalone determinant. Environment factors refer to the actual circumstances, how challenging it is, eg. preterm baby needing more care, or baby having sleep difficulties, feeding difficulties, other family problems, etc. Personality such as perfectionistic, inflexible, easily anxious. Lack of coping skills, not knowing how to cope with stress and other emotions.

Baby blues is very common in the first 1 - 2 weeks after delivery, affects 70-80% of all women. Mood changes are milder or at least short term. It is due to hormonal changes and the adjustment to new routines/responsibilities. For most cases will just subside on its own especially with good family support. However, in PND the mood changes are more intense, lasting more than 2 weeks and affecting overall functioning, struggling to cope, tends to persist for months and may spiral down to severe problems when untreated.

Poor functioning, feeling miserable everyday... When untreated, the depression may drag on for months and years. It will also affect family relationships and baby's development. Worst case scenario is feeling so hopeless that it ends in suicide. Yes, happen in Singapore before, every one such case is one too many. All of which you don't have to put yourself through, so just seek help! Every mother, every person deserves to live well.

When depressed, the mother would not be able to respond with varied expressions, looking gloomy most of the time. Babies can sense it and avoid looking at mother's face. So baby feels disconnected from mother. Mother also does not feel any joy from looking after baby, just going through the motion of what needs to be done, no interaction means baby has no opportunity to learn social cues. If mother's depression results in her being irritable and easily annoyed, she may lose temper at baby and baby starts to fear mother, or baby becomes even more clingy and mother feels even more stressed. So it just continues in a cycle.

Not by itself, but some women may be more sensitive to hormonal changes and so their mood gets affected, or they experience other physical effects from the hormonal changes and that makes everything harder to cope with.

If untreated, similar to long term effects of stress, may affect our heart health, immunity and overall mental health. Haven't come across studies that track long term effects after recovering from PND.

not sure what you mean by home remedies? if it is an approved supplement and supposed to help with symptoms like poor sleep/appetite/mood, you may try at your own discretion. But if you are already taking prescribed medication then please check with the pharmacist for any interactions. Generally for moderate to severe levels of depression, counselling together with medication would be the recommended treatment.

When you find that you are struggling with your mood for most days, for at least 2 weeks already. Or when you have more severe signs like serious thoughts of suicide / harming baby / hallucinations, seek immediate help cos highly risky, but can definitely be treated especially with early intervention.

Anger, irritability, withdrawing from interactions and responsibilities, turning to substances (increased smoking, drinking). Actually the signs for general depression and postpartum depression are similar, it's just the definition that "postpartum" usually occurs within 1 year from childbirth, and the contributing factors are related to becoming a parent.

yes definitely! though it tends to show in different ways. Fathers can feel overwhelmed with the new responsibilities, feel helpless not knowing how to support the mother, or feel neglected / rejected when the mother gets so anxious over the baby that she does not allow father to handle baby.