Recently I watched some videos about moms who had their babies and then the symptoms of baby blues appear… Baby blues, do you know what that is? It’s such a common problem and sometimes it goes unnoticed by the family, but the former pregnant woman, now a mom, feels it very strongly. Baby Blues is a deep sadness, fear, and a feeling of helplessness, insecurity that affects the mom right after childbirth.
At the beginning of pregnancy, hormone levels are the highest of a woman’s life, and because of that, life turns upside down. It’s a roller coaster of different moods, with peaks of sadness, happiness, irritation, and everything else. Who suffers from this? The dad or whoever is closest, of course! But this is perfectly normal. After childbirth, all those hormones that were surging during pregnancy drop dramatically, making way for new hormones like prolactin and also oxytocin, since mom needs to breastfeed her baby.
After becoming a mother, all the fears that weren’t there before pregnancy come to the surface, and a wave of strange feelings like helplessness and fear of death can appear in this phase. Baby blues should be talked about more often, because it is one of the postpartum issues that more information should be available about. About 80% of women who have babies go through a phase of intense sadness.
I remember when I had my daughter, still in the hospital, I had an uncontrollable urge to cry, and I came home feeling down even though I knew everything was okay. I had a nice postpartum period, I had a lot of support and more than affectionate postpartum care from my family. But even so, the baby blues hit me hard. I cried when my mom “burned” herself while cooking, I cried because my husband had to go to work, I cried because I felt like a failure at breastfeeding, I cried because there were too many visitors, I cried because I was afraid I wouldn’t handle three children, I cried, I cried…
Lack of information makes people confuse baby blues with fussiness, as if it were just a whim, and it’s not that at all. Women really feel very bad. Family support is essential for postpartum care and that way baby blues becomes more “bearable.” Give lots of love and attention to the new mother so she feels supported and this phase becomes lighter. My advice for family members is also to pay attention to this sadness, if it goes on for more than a few days, it’s time to see a doctor, it can be the OB-GYN who delivered the baby, and they might prescribe some medication for this phase. Remember that baby blues goes away as soon as the hormones stabilize—this happens in at most 20 days!
Kisses and until next time!
See also: Postpartum Depression – Celebrities Who Suffered From This Condition
Photo: Helga Weber
