1 in 7 pregnant women suffers from depression

The information was given by Associate Professor, Dr. Huynh Nguyen Khanh Trang, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology – Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Head of Obstetrics Department – Hung Vuong Hospital. National scientific conference, topic: Pregnancy nutrition, care and treatment of threatened miscarriageNovember 2.

Postpartum depression is a mental illness that appears in women after giving birth, especially in the first 2-3 weeks of confinement. Most postpartum women have mood disorders. This symptom can be transient and relatively mild, however, some have long-term persistent disorders, gradually leading to depression, affecting the life and health of mothers and children. In particular, there are cases where the lives of mothers and children are affected by suicide.

According to Dr. Trang, although it is called postpartum depression, many cases show signs of depression during pregnancy, get worse in the middle and end of pregnancy, then spike after giving birth, so they need to be treated. Proper care and timely treatment.

There are many reasons why women suffer from postpartum depression such as endocrine, hormonal, and psychological changes. Taking care of a child is hard, getting little sleep, and the baby cries at night, causing stress for the mother, physical weakness, and more mood disorders.

Many pregnant women do not receive attention and help from their husbands, family and relatives, and conflicts over taking care of their children can easily lead to depression.

In addition, factors predicting postpartum depression are previous psychological events as well as current life stress or childhood trauma and abuse…

Psychologically, depressed women will feel depressed, lose interest in fun activities, have low self-esteem, and think about death. People experience loss of appetite, sleep abnormalities, have low energy, move slower or faster, and have difficulty concentrating or making decisions. They also do not interact with their children, accuse themselves of being a burden, not being able to take care of their children, feeling useless…

Most postpartum women suffer from temporary depression that goes away on its own, but many cases become severe. Statistics show that about 50% of women with postpartum depression are not diagnosed by medical professionals. In many cases, the symptoms are mild or do not share, they deliberately hide the illness, and when discovered, it is already in the difficult-to-treat stage. .

“When depression is not treated, the mother can easily turn into postpartum psychosis,” Dr. Trang said, adding that then the child – who was once the joy and hope of the family – is the first target. that the psychotic mother wants to destroy.

Therefore, experts say that at the postpartum period, support from family is very important. In addition to providing emotional support, relatives also have the responsibility to observe and detect early symptoms of depression in pregnant women, avoiding the situation of missing treatment.

Doctors advise mothers to get enough sleep and spend time taking care of themselves and exercising to regain shape and confidence. You should not confine yourself to four walls but go outside to breathe fresh air, listen to relaxing music… to help your mood be happy and stable. Improve diet, supplement vitamins, increase immune system function.

Postpartum women also need support from their husbands and families in taking care of their children. Crying babies can be caused by mental and digestive stress. Don’t let your baby be too full or too hungry, listen to relaxing music, massage your baby, use some herbs to help your baby sleep well such as lemon balm leaves, passion fruit… When sleeping, you should keep the air conditioner at low temperature. moderate temperature, avoid too hot or too cold as it will affect your child’s sleep.

Treatment of postpartum depression can use psychotherapy, hormonal treatment, electroconvulsive therapy or pharmacotherapy. Depending on the level of depression, doctors will have individual treatment regimens for patients. The most important thing is to detect the disease early, for timely treatment.

Research at some maternity hospitals in Vietnam shows that the rate of postpartum depression ranges from 11% to 33% and usually begins within the first 4 weeks after giving birth. The disease has a high recurrence rate. The World Health Organization (WHO) rates depression as the most burdensome of all health conditions affecting women.