Postnatal disorder is a type of mood disorder associated with childbirth that can affect both sexes. The postnatal disorder is more likely towards mothers than fathers but it does not mean the father is not affected at all. Postnatal depression is usually affected by new fathers because they will feel stress becoming a new role as the head of the family (Coyne, 2019, October 10). The stress comes when they need to do something unusual like they need to have extra finances for their child, they need to take care of their baby at midnight and many more and it can lead to depression regarding the unusual. In contrast, every mother will experience postnatal depression after giving birth (NHS, 2017, October 23) but it depends on the person itself whether they already have a history of depression or not. This is because someone who has depression will have a high tendency to have postnatal depression.
Postnatal disorder can be divided into 3 stages which are baby blues, postpartum depression, and postpartum psychosis. The meaning of baby blues is a transient postpartum mood disorder characterized by milder depressive symptoms than postpartum depression. About 70% to 80% of all new mothers will experience baby blues with some negative feelings or mood swings after giving birth ('Baby Blues: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment,' 2019, October 14). Usually, the mother will suffer from baby blues disorder within 3 days until a week after childbirth. The causes of the baby blues phase are unclear at this time because they only can be detected when they have hormone changes. These hormonal changes can lead to chemical changes in the brain which will turn to depression ('Baby Blues: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment,' 2019, October 14).
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The second stage of postnatal disorder is postpartum depression which can be defined as if your symptoms from baby blues do not fade away after a few weeks or the symptoms are getting worse (Smith, 2019, November 5). Postpartum depression in the beginning will look normally like baby blues disorder. Postpartum depression and baby blues have the same symptoms but to differentiate, postpartum depression’s symptoms are more detailed such as suicidal thoughts or an inability to care for your baby, and this disorder is longer lasting (Smith, 2019, November 5). Those who have experienced baby blues have a high chance of getting postpartum depression.
The last stage of postnatal disorder is postpartum psychosis. Postpartum psychosis rarely happens but it is an extremely serious disorder that can develop after childbirth and it is characterized by a loss of contact with reality (Smith, 2019, November 5). Postpartum psychosis is different from baby blues and postpartum depression because it has a high risk for suicide or infanticide (Smith, 2019, November 5). Normally, new mothers have a low tendency to diagnose postpartum psychosis because this disorder will happen to someone who has an episode of postpartum depression due to previous pregnancies.
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