Are you Sad

 Are you sad?  There are many reasons to feel sad.  You could have lost a loved one, broken up with your significant other or saw a terrible tragedy on television.  These issues will definitely produce sadness but each will heal with time.

There are those who will feel sadness for no other reason than they are sad.  These people need some help from their doctor or in more extreme cases they can be seen by a psychologist or psychiatrist. 

Having a baby, which is a joyous miracle, can cause such extreme imbalances between hormones and cerebral chemicals.  When this occurs it causes postpartum depression.  Please seek help if you feel extreme bouts of depression.  It is important to understand that this is a physiological situation that can be beyond your personal control.  Of course most women experience the baby blues, that is not postpartum depression (PPD).  PPD is classified as extreme sadness, feelings of unworthiness, feelings of even violence or ideas of suicide or taking the life of your precious addition.

There are many medications and psychological counseling opportunities available for any woman who is suffering from PPD.  There have been many famous people who suffer from PPD.  Brooke Shields and Marie Osmond both suffered from this condition and are very loving and wonderful mothers.  They took care of themselves and took care to seek professional help.  Another infamous woman who took the lives of her five young children is now in a mental facility.  Had she taken the medication she was prescribed, had she not been a member of a radical religious group, had the medical insurance not been capped so that she was not discharged before she was ready, her five beautiful children, the youngest was not even a year old, would still be alive.  Andrea Yates is a murderer but the insurance company, religions, and her own husband did not help her when she needed it most, who is libel?

I think that those who suffer from PPD should enlist as much help as she can get.  If her mother or a sister, even an older child, can help care for the baby.  Dad needs to have more understanding that he thinks is reasonable.  Everyone who is expecting a baby, all family and friends who are expecting the baby, need to be educated about the severity and seriousness, and potential danger involved with PPD.  I had the baby blues, my daughter had PPD.  I was able to get over my own depression but my daughter needed a psychologist and medication.

I recommend that you learn from the history of PPD and learn it well.  I hope that if you are pregnant that you do not suffer from PPD but in the event it is better to be educated than it is to fly through the storm without any knowledge of what could be on the other side.