How Postpartum Depression Affect Marriages

 The arrival of newborn is always a source of joy for most couples and families. This is true because babies bring a new different feel and complexion to every marriage. But there are cases where childbirth causes women to experience or exhibit depressive symptoms called postpartum depression.

What is postpartum depression?

Postpartum depression is the most common problem associated with childbirth. This illness is characterized by depression that a woman experiences within four weeks of childbirth, affecting about 13% of women who give birth.

Postpartum depression is also called major depression with postpartum onset. Delusional thinking after childbirth, called postpartum psychosis, affects about one in every thousand women. 

In the United States, postpartum depression occurs after one out of every eight deliveries, and affects about half a million women every year.

Notably, postpartum depression is not an illness that is exclusive to mothers. Fathers can experience it as well. In fact, it can affect as many as 10% of new fathers. As with women, symptoms in men can result in fathers having difficulty caring for themselves and for their children when suffering from postpartum depression.

Unfortunately, up to 50% of individuals with postpartum depression or postpartum psychosis are never detected. That can result in devastating outcomes for the patient and family. 

For example, postpartum psychosis is thought to have been a potential factor in Andrea Yates drowning her five children in 2001 and was explored as a factor in Susan Smith drowning her two sons. And in Nigeria, we have heard how some fathers abscond after their babies are born.

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