Postpartum depression

Postpartum depression is a mood disorder, a health condition that shapes the emotional tone of a person's everyday life. It happens to a lot of people, but that doesn't make it minor, and it can begin at any point in the first twelve months after the baby is born. It also isn't the baby blues by another name: here, what a person feels is heavier and takes longer to lift.

What causes it? The exact cause still isn't known, but there's one important piece of the puzzle. After childbirth, levels of estradiol and progesterone fall abruptly. These are reproductive hormones, chemical messengers that travel through the blood. Picture walking down a staircase in the dark when a step is suddenly missing: your foot drops farther than you expected and your whole body jolts. That hormonal drop works something like that. In some people, called susceptible because they're more vulnerable to the change, the drop can act as a stressor, an extra load on the body, and set off the symptoms of depression.

How can it show up? There may be a sadness or emptiness that's there most of the time, a baby who sparks little interest, or none at all, and a doubt that keeps coming back about being able to take care of the baby. Putting a name to them is part of understanding what's going on inside.