Articles

The majority of persons see postpartum depression as an illness affecting just the mother. Unfortunately, this is not true. The entire family experiences relationship issues that alter family interactions drastically. Depressed moms who do not seek treatment frequently place their babies at risk for severe or fatal delays in growth and development.

The psychiatric name for this complicated condition is nonorganic failure to thrive. Nonorganic means that there is no medical cause for the infant's delays. Because of the mom's postpartum depression, she frequently fails to care for the baby's physical and psychological needs. Although the baby may cry out in hunger at the beginning, he or she usually gives up and stops interacting with other people. This condition can cause nutritional problems, starvation, and even death.

Doctors use growth charts to track a child's physical growth with respect to height, weight, and head size. If a baby is in good health from birth, his or her size fits within the normal values on these charts. If the baby begins to experience severe growth delays, this will be apparent by comparing his or her progress against normal ranges. If an infant's growth is lower than the fifth percentile, physicians get worried.

Other symptoms often appear before an infant's growth problems reach this crisis stage. Most babies who grow normally are curious about their environment. In contrast, babies who fail to thrive show little or no interest in their surroundings. These infants rarely make sounds or words; they have stopped trying to relate with their caretakers.

How serious is this condition? If not treated properly, a child can starve to death. Although the infant may get just enough nutrition to stay alive, his or her muscles, lungs, and mind cannot grow enough. Additionally, even when they do get help, these children do not "catch up" entirely. They frequently acquire relationship issues or eating conditions, even when they finally start getting their needs met.

Infants diagnosed with failure to thrive typically become gravely ill from starvation. They usually are hospitalized for several weeks at a time. Sometimes, they become so weakened that taking a bottle is exhausting. They get nutrition through a tube inserted in their stomachs, or even in their veins to get nutrition!

The saddest aspect of this condition is that it can be easily prevented. If moms who have postpartum depression recognize this depression when it begins, they are able to seek treatment and do not expose their helpless infants to these terrible dangers. Indeed, studies have demonstrated that nine-tenths of the women who suffer from depression and get treatment will find healing!

A number of approaches are useful in treating postpartum depression. Some physicians use medications, such as antidepressants. These medicines are costly. They should also be avoided in nursing mothers. Furthermore, these drugs sometimes cause thoughts of suicide; these medications must be used with great care.

Frequently, physicians recommend psychotherapy instead of or along with medications. Psychotherapy, however, is costly. Additionally, it often requires a lot of extra time, and many weeks may go by before this treatment is successful. Regrettably, if the woman's depression is severe, this much time may be too much to prevent harm to the infant. If the baby starts showing delayed growth, extra treatment may be required.

Luckily, other non-drug treatment options are available. Two revolutionary, beneficial methods that usually offer results much faster than psychotherapy, and are much less dangerous than drugs, are Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP and hypnotherapy for depression. These two approaches usually start to work after only one treatment. In addition, they are much less expensive than alternative methods.

Mothers who think they might have postpartum depression need to get treatment at once so that their babies are not at risk for dangerous growth delays. The severity of the effects on the baby mandates that the treatment work quickly, and be very effective. NLP and hypnotherapy for depression cost little, begin to work almost immediately, and are extremely effective. Therefore, both of these treatments are ideal for helping women with postpartum depression.

Summary: Postpartum depression is depression that begins after the birth of a child. New moms cannot give their infants the attention they need to survive and thrive. This causes failure to thrive, a severe, possibly fatal condition, affecting the infant. Women who think they have postpartum depression should seek treatment immediately. Hypnosis and NLP for depression cost little and have demonstrated amazing effectiveness.