Postpartum Depression

''Andrea Yates killed her five children on June 20, 2001 by drowning them in the bathtub in her house.She had been suffering for some time with very severe postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis.She was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.On January 9, 2006, Yates entered pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity. On February 1, 2006, she was granted release on bail on the condition that she be admitted to a mental health treatment facility."

The Andrea Yates Story

The above popular case was of an extreme postpartum depression with psychosis,yet hearing the story of a mother hurting her own child is just too painful to digest.One cannot even imagine the pain the mother had to go through during a time which was meant to be the happiest moments of her life!!!

Here are a few Cases of Postpartum Depression:

1.Severe postpartum depression leaves a family without wife and mother:

Alexander Soukakos lost his mother before he could say the word ''Mama''. He was asleep when his mother Carol Soukakos hanged herself from a basement water pipe.Carol may have died by her own hand, but the noose around her neck was a severe form of postpartum depression.Carol was confused and depressed. She was convinced that she wasn't a good mother and was failing her baby.Her husband,Thomas Soukakos had no idea as to why was she having such disturbing thoughts.-

-http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Severe-postpartum-depression-leaves-them-without-1105206.php#photo-630173

2.A mother tries to drown her 4 month old twin babies:

Paula Thompson became a victim of Postpartum Depression and tried to drown her 4 month old twin babies.On being arrested she told the authorities that she wanted to kill her children.She was given five years probation by an Orange County Superior Court judge who said it was a case of postpartum depression, not child abuse!- http://smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?type=lnews&id=5537&eddate=

3.Postpartum Case Study of a young mother with her second child:

Within 5 days of delivering her daughter,Julie, a 26 year old mother, describes descending into a spiral of depression and anxiety due to her family history with Postpartum Depression.

http://www.dallasbrainchangers.com/post-partum-depression-post-partum-depression/postpartum-depression-postpartum-depression-case-study

4. A Bhayander resident, Shefali Sheth, smashed the head of her newborn baby:

Shefali Sheth, 28,was an unwed mother of a one and a half year old girl.On becoming pregnant for the second time she suffered from a mental depression verging on temporary insanity which led her to kill hew newborn baby on January 14th 2009.-http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_baby-killer-mom-says-she-was-depressed_1260711

5. Postpartum Depression in South Asian Women:

Mothers in India and other South Asian countries have a harder time dealing with Postpartum depression due to lack of awareness and timely medications.Here are a few experiences of women who dealt with Postpartum Depression- http://www.indiawest.com/news/3442-postpartum-depression-south-asian-women-suffer-in-silence.html

6.Gender, Poverty, and Postpartum Depression: A Study of Mothers in Goa, India:

The objective of this study was to describe the natural history of postpartum depression in a developing country in which gender inequality is deeply entrenched. This study aimed to examine the etiological role of risk factors recognized to be relevant to the onset of postpartum depression in developed societies, as well as those that reflect the poverty and gender inequality faced by women in India. -http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/AJP/3732/43.pdf

7.Case Study of a 30 year old mother who succumbed to postpartum depression and lost her life due to ignorance and inappropriate care:

http://www.the-networktufh.org/sites/default/files/attachments/basic_pages/Postpartum%20Depression-Case%20Study.pdf

8.Case Study Examining Postpartum Depression Symptoms and Treatment:

The focus of this paper is Postpartum Depression and how vital it is to differentiate the degrees of PPD and the socio-economic factors responsible in causing it- http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/558/case-study-examining-postpartum-depression-symptoms-and-treatment

Famous Celebrity Cases of Postpartum Depression:

1.Melissa Rycroft opened up for the first time about her battle with postpartum depression, telling the U.S weekly magazine that it started as soon as Ava was born. “Almost immediately I didn’t feel right,” she says. “I had just given birth to this perfect baby, but absolutely nothing made me happy anymore. I had no idea what was wrong. I had these great blessings, but I felt empty. I’d put Ava in her crib and go outside and scream for a minute.”

After three months of suffering, she finally decided to seek help. "I told Tye, ‘I don’t know how to make this better. I need help,’" she reveals. "Now Tye and I go once a week [to therapy]. We talk about getting over my guilt, and the tears really flow. She reaffirms that what’s going on is chemical. But talking to someone is only going to help so much until my body gets back to the way it was."

2. Gwyneth Paltrow who previously came off as a bit of smug privileged mother -shared her battle with postpartum depression following the birth of her second child, Moses, in Good Housekeeping last year. "I felt like a zombie," she said. "I couldn’t access my heart. I couldn’t access my emotions. I couldn’t connect ... I just thought it meant I was a terrible mother and a terrible person. ... I thought postpartum depression meant you were sobbing every single day and incapable of looking after a child. But there are different shades of it and depths of it, which is why I think it’s so important for women to talk about it. It was a trying time. I felt like a failure.”

3.Bryce Dallas Howard wrote about her experience with postpartum after the birth of her son, Theo. "For me, breast-feeding was even more painful than giving birth," she wrote. "And despite a lactation consultant offering help, I felt incompetent. I refused to give up, forcing myself to do everything possible so that my son would consume only my breast milk with no supplementation. I forged on, barely sleeping, always either breast feeding or pumping and never getting the hang of it. My husband began shooting a television series, and late evenings when he returned home, I would meet him at the door, shaking with fury ... I screamed expletives at him, behavior he had never experienced in the seven years we had been together."

4.Courteney Cox had a delayed case of postpartum. "I went through a really hard time—not right after the baby, but when she turned six months," said Cox, who reports having had suicidal thoughts of steering her car off a cliff. "I couldn't sleep. My heart was racing. And I got really depressed. I went to the doctor and found out my hormones had been pummeled."

6.Amanda Peet says she felt elated as a pregnant woman but that it "all came crashing down the second [Frankie] was born. I want to be honest about it because I think there’s still so much shame when you have mixed feelings about being a mom instead of feeling this sort of ‘bliss."

7.In her book Rinnivation: Getting Your Best Life Ever, Lisa Rinna revealed that she had an especially nasty case of postpartum depression. She says she had visions of killing her husband and her two daughters. "People don't talk about this. It's very, very scary and vulnerable," she said. "I made Harry hide all the sharp knives and take the gun out of the house because I had visions of killing everybody. Now how horrific is that? I wanted to share it because I think women are so shamed by this and feel so horrible ... I found help and got through it."

8.Kendra Wilkinson went through postpartum depression, too. “After giving birth, I never brushed my hair, my teeth, or took a shower. I looked in the mirror one day and was really depressed. I thought, 'Look at me!' I had this glamorous life in L.A., and now I did'nt … A couple of times, I even said, 'I just have nothing to live for."

9.Brooke Shields wrote a whole book about how she had horrifying thoughts and felt disconnected from her first baby. She talks in the book about getting on medication to treat her symptoms

In the above video Brooke Shields speaks about her difficulties in getting pregnant for the first time and her postpartum depression after her first baby was born. It took a lot of courage for Brooke to admit publicly that she suffered from Postpartum Depression and needed help. Her book ''Down came the rain: My journey through Postpartum Depression'' has helped lots of women ,who were otherwise suffering in silence, to seek the help they needed

10. Alanis Morissette suffered from postpartum depression for more than a year after her son, Ever Imre, was born in December of 2010. Morissette told that she originally thought it was just a phase and would quickly be gone: ''I just thought it was a swampy chapter, if I soldiered it out, that it would go away…. I came to realize that the longer I waited, the more intense it would become.'' She told that ''it was'nt just a change in mood, but a physical phenomenon as well''

''The degree and intensity of my post-natal depression shocked me. I am predisposed to depression, but what surprised me this time was the physical pain. I hadn’t realized the depths to which you can ache – limbs, back, torso, head, everything hurt – and it went on for 15 months''

Alanis says she is coming forward now to help other women recognize the condition and to lessen the shame women often feel about the disease.

''I think if there is any goal in me talking about it, it would be to eradicate the shame around it…. It’s just what happens sometimes and, for me, I just waited way too long to reach out for help.''

Alanis Morissette discusses her stuggles with postpartum depression in the above video

Postpartum Depression 'Survivors' share their stories:

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