For most new mothers, life with a newborn is a sleeplessly wonderful thing. But for one in nine women in the U.S. suffering from postpartum depression, those months of baby bliss can be anything but.
Postpartum depression is more than just a case of the “baby blues.” Symptoms often include an intense sadness, depressed mood, difficulty bonding with your baby, crippling anxiety and anger, fear that you’re not a good mother, and thoughts of harming yourself or the baby, among other things.
For years, doctors and medical professionals have been treating postpartum depression with the same drugs used to treat depression symptoms among the general public. But postpartum depression is different. It’s often triggered or caused by hormonal changes that women experience after pregnancy — something that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can’t specifically target.
