Pregnancy is supposed to be one of the happiest moments in a woman life, but for women this creates stress, confusion, sadness and fear. According to American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), between 14-24 % women during pregnancy become under the influence of depression and stress mentally and many effects appearing physically.Depression is a mood disorder and mental stress that affects every 4th woman at some point during her lifetime, so it is not only attached with women who are pregnant.
But all too often, But often depression is not diagnosed properly because it’s considered hormonal imbalance during pregnancy. This can be dangerous for both mother and the unborn baby. Depression is more than stress during pregnancy and can be dealt with proper support and help.
Depression during Pregnancy
Depression during pregnancy is called antepartum depression, is a mood disorder same like clinical depression. Mood disorders are biological illnesses that involve stress and changes effecting brain. During pregnancy hormone changes can affect brain chemicals, which are directly related to depression and stress. These can be happened by difficult life situations, which can result in depression during pregnancy. Women during depression generally appear following signs of depression for two weeks or more.
- Feeling persistent sadness
- Difficulty concentrating
- Sleeping too little or restless, feeling laziness
- Low or no interest in activities and joys of life once used to be
- Suicidal thoughts, hopelessness
- Anxiety, anger and short tempered
- Feeling guilty and worthless.
- Effects in eating habits.
The possible triggers of depression during pregnancy are;
- Family and relationship problems
- Family and personal history of depression
- Infertility treatment
- Previous pregnancy loss or damage
- Stressful events of life
- Complication in pregnancy
- History of some trauma or abuse.
Depression during pregnancy can have bad effects and dangerous for baby and child. If not dealt with pregnancy within time then it can cause to poor nutrition, smoking and suicide or death of child and mother. For child it can be happened premature birth, low birth weight , physical disability and developmental problems.
Dealing with depression- Accurate solutions
If during pregnancy women feel some sort of mental disorder and stress causing depression and restless, the most important way is to seek help. Talk to the nearby Health services provider about the symptoms and share the reasons of depression to better understand the problem. Treatment options for women who are pregnant can include ,
- Support Groups
- Private Psychotherapy
- Medication
- Light therapy
However because of medications used during pregnancy for depression can cause problems in newborn baby,
Those women affected from moderate depression may be able to manage her symptoms with support groups, psychotherapy and light therapy. But if a pregnant woman is dealing with severe depression, a combination of both psychotherapy and medication is recommended to use.
Medication Use for treatment of depression
Women should be aware that all medications used during depression will cross the placenta and reach their babies. There is not enough information about which drugs are entirely safe and which having side effects. But when treating major depression, the risks and benefits need to be compared closely. The medication that can offer the most help, with the smallest risk to baby should be considered more important to be used and carefully checked. The medicine dose and proper checkup is also essential during depression treatment because it’s a consistent problem till a proper treatment not completely solved the depression.
If medication seems like the best treatment for your depression, forming a collaborative treatment team are most useful and helpful. These include your prenatal care provider and your mental health provider with both continuously looking into the treatment effects. Questions about who will provide you with the best treatment but still protect your baby are important. For depressed women during pregnancy the option of using of medications should be properly checked and do research on both. The long term effects which your baby may have due to these medication include, Is your baby likely to deal with withdrawal symptoms after birth? Is this medication linked to health problems in the newborn or for future? And always remember that you need to weigh out the possibilities of problems in the future versus the problems that are now solved because for time being a solution helped doesn’t mean has treated the problem and it will not occur again.