Great Articles on Postpartum Depression, and Anxiety

This is so refreshing. I knew that I had found a great resource at WomentoWomen.com, but after I have been searching the internet all week for natural remedies for PPD and not finding much at all. I received an email with this article on PPD that completely backs me up and gives more tips for helping hormone imbalances. Read here, it is great!
Another article on the same website is on anxiety and the natural remedies for it. Here is the link for that. It is very enlightening also!

A side note, on the email I got from Woman to Woman they had this information about Omega-3's:

"Some research on omega-3's shows promise for preventing, and possibly treating, depression. Researchers recently found that people with high levels of omega-3's in their blood had more gray matter in the sectors of the brain associated with positive emotions and moods, while the subjects with mild to moderate depression symptoms showed decreased gray matter in those same areas. More research is needed to determine whether omega-3's actually cause this phenomenon, but it's safe to say that healthy omega-3 levels can mean a more positive outlook on life and lower rates of memory loss.

How many omega-3's should you get in your daily diet? The average American only gets about 200 mg of two of the most important omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) per day from their diet, and the American Heart Association recommends a much higher intake of between 1000-3000 mg. Here is our quick rule of thumb:

If you have a healthy diet and no symptoms	600 mg/day	Our Essential Nutrients has you covered
If you have joint pain, depression, mood swings, feeling overscheduled/rushed, anxiety attacks, etc.	1,000 - 2,000 mg/day	Our Essential Nutrients plus an additional omega-3 supplement, or consider adding more deep water fish to your diet.
If you need to lower your triglycerides	2,000 - 3,000 mg/day	Our Essential Nutrients, plus an additional Omega-3 supplement, plus more fish in your diet."

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Thanks, Women to Women and Dr. Northrup! It is so nice to have such credible back up to the things that I have found work myself!

Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Depression can start anytime in the first year after delivery of a baby. In the first 1-2 weeks after birth 80% of women experience some "baby blues" which are wide mood swings brought on by the hormonal changes taking place in a woman's body during those weeks (see about.com:pregnancy and childbirth).

If the feelings of depression continue beyond that, it is then considered Postpartum Depression (PPD). Sometimes the fatigue and depression can be from anemia or low thyroid. It is best to have those things checked out in a blood test by a physician. If those items check out fine, often the depression is linked to continuing hormone imbalances (Dalton, Katharina: Depression after Childbirth. (Oxford University Press, 1985) . Dr. Dalton explains in her book that the pituitary gland doesn't send the message to the endocrine system to produce the necessary hormones, including estrogen, progesterone, and thyroid. According to Dr. Dalton, natural progesterone is safe for use during breast feeding and can help with most symptoms of PPD. With my fifth child, my doctor had me have (I believe the dosage was 100 mg) progesterone shots for 10 days, and then wrote me a prescription for 2 100 mg progesterone suppositories a day, one in the morning and one in the evening.

I felt better than I ever had after any of my other childbirths. I took 50-100 mg. of B6 and a good multi-vitamin, and made sure that I got plenty of rest. (One way to help insure that you get plenty of rest is to read On Becoming Babywise by Robert Bucknam and use his methods. I wish I'd known them with my first four!) At about 4 months postpartum, I walked a minimum of 30 minutes 4-5 days a week. I should have started at six weeks postpartum, but I still felt great even though I wasn't exercising.

I would say that my PPD was moderate with 3 of my first four children and moderate to severe after having Tessa and a traumatic delivery including severely hemorrhaging and being anemic. After having Tessa (who is #3 for me) I was almost completely cured when I started walking 4 days a week on a treadmill when she was 3 months old. I didn't even know what PPD was at the time. I just knew that I felt incredibly better after exercising for only a week.

The link above from About.com is a very helpful website. I have been searching for websites that offer natural remedies for PPD, but haven't seen any that recommend progesterone therapy so far. I know that it made my postpartum experience 95% better than the others had been previously.

If a woman has a history of bipolar disorder or prior depression before childbirth, she is much more likely to have PPD and should talk to her doctor/midwife about prevention of PPD before she delivers her baby.

The nice thing about this treatment for PPD is that it treated the root of my PPD and didn't have the side effects that other treatments can have. The progesterone did increase my appetite, but that is the only side effect that I noticed. (Another reason that I should have started exercising sooner!)

A good book to read about PPD is Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression by Marie Osmond. I like it because it has a quiz in the back the take to see if a person is experiencing PPD and helpful natural remedies that Marie used which were given to her by her doctor. I have a signed copy and got to visit with Marie at her book signing in the Phoenix area. I was thrilled that she wrote the book because I'm sure it has been read more because of her celebrity status.