Listen to the interview with Dr. Shosh on the Forever Young Radio program.
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Published: Dec 25, 2009
Video Summary:
Dr. Shoshana Bennett answers an important uncommonly asked question, “Can A Father Get Postpartum Depression or PPD?”
Up to twenty percent of women suffer from depression while pregnant with some requiring medications. Is antidepressant use harmful during pregnancy?
Pregnancy is one of the happiest times of a woman’s life, but up to one in five women deal with depression during this all important time. Not only is this hard on the mom-to-be, but it can affect the health of the unborn baby. Depressed moms to be are more likely to drink, smoke, and eat a poor diet in a misguided attempt to deal with their depressed mood. Obviously, it’s important for the health of both mom and baby that the symptoms of depression be treated; but are antidepressants the answer? At one time, using antidepressants during pregnancy was considered to be safe, but now there questions about their safety.
Are Antidepressants Harmful During Pregnancy?
What are the risks of using antidepressants during pregnancy? There’s growing concern that using antidepressants during pregnancy may increase the risk of birth defects in the unborn baby. A class of drugs known as SSRI’s are being closely scrutinized since recent studies show they’re associated with a slightly higher risk of birth defects – particularly the drug Paxil. A study showed that women who took Paxil during the first trimester of pregnancy were two times more likely to give birth to babies with structural heart defects.
It’s no secret that hormones run rampant during pregnancy and afterwards. Women may be surprised that unlike many of their counterparts, pregnancy is not a time of joy and elation – but one of sadness, anxiety, and sometimes worse. Battling depression during pregnancy can negatively impact the growth of your baby and finding the right (and safest!) treatment is very important for mom and baby. After delivery, women suffering from postpartum depression (PPD) need additional support and treatment. One in seven new moms will experience something more severe than the normal “baby blues”.
Dr. Shosh interviewed by Shay Pausa on SheKnows about issues related to Postpartum Depression and the potential for violence:
Dr. Shosh on Pregnancy and Postpartum Depression:
Dr Shoshana video on helping your partner recover from Postpartum Depression:
Dr Shosh on Holiday Tips to help prevent depression in Moms:
I wasn’t planning to post anything until Tuesday, November 17th, which is the blog for Prematurity Awareness Day…that is, until I saw the incredibly ignorant comments about PPD in the chain of comments on the Wall Street Journal Blog post “Medications During Pregnancy: A Vexing Dilemma” that Katherine over at Postpartum Progress pointed out on her blog yesterday. The Wall Street Journal Blog should post “Ignorance & Stigma of Postpartum Depression: A Vexing Dilemma.” Progress in destigmatization of depression and postpartum depression entails addressing such remarks whenever they are heard. Simply ignoring them won’t accomplish anything, least of all public awareness. For all those who are PPD survivors, whenever you hear people say off-the-mark comments about PPD, speak up and be heard!
For five years after the birth of her son, Jane Alexander averaged three hours’ sleep a night. “It was torture,” she says. “I’d get to sleep at 4.30am and then be woken at 6am by the baby. My husband would get up and look after him while I tried to catch up on sleep, but I was on a knife edge and woke at the merest whimper.” Even long after the baby was sleeping through the night, the insomnia seemed impossible to shift. “If I was under any kind of stress, I didn’t sleep at all,” says Alexander, 49, a journalist. She returned to work a few weeks after the birth and the next half decade was a blur. “If I drove, I had to pinch and slap myself to keep alert. I was dizzy, confused and unable to string sensible sentences together. All I wanted was to hide away.”
Everyone knows that babies equal broken sleep, but postnatal insomnia — the inability to go back to sleep when the baby does, or to fall asleep in the first place — is a widespread problem for mothers. The latest research has shown that new mothers typically spend 20% more time awake during the first six weeks after childbirth than is the average. In addition, postpartum women wake more frequently and have less dream sleep than non-postpartum women. “I see this problem a huge amount,” says Jenny Smith, a senior NHS midwife and author of Your Body, Your Baby, Your Birth. “And if the lack of sleep is chronic, it can lead you into postnatal depression.” Read on…
