The majority of people see postpartum depression as a condition that affects just the mother. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The entire family faces relationship issues that affect family interactions drastically. Depressed moms who do not seek treatment often place their infants in danger of experiencing severe or fatal setbacks in growth and development.
The medical name for this complex condition is nonorganic failure to thrive. Nonorganic indicates that there is no medical cause for the infant’s delays. Because of the mom’s postpartum depression, she often fails to care for the baby’s physical and emotional requirements. Although the infant may cry out in hunger at the beginning, he or she usually gives up and stops interacting with other people. This disorder may result in nutritional problems, starvation, or even death.
Doctors use growth charts to track a baby’s physical growth with respect to height, weight, and head size. If an infant is healthy at birth, his or her size fits within the normal values on these charts. If the infant begins to have severe growth delays, the problem will appear when comparing his or her progress with normal ranges. Once the baby’s progress is below the fifth percentile, doctors get worried.
Other signs may become evident before the baby’s growth delays reach this critical point. The majority of infants who develop at a normal rate are interested in their environment. In contrast, infants who do not thrive show little or no interest in their environment. These infants typically do not make sounds or words; they have quit trying to relate with their caregivers.
How much of a problem is failure to thrive? If untreated, a child may starve to death. Although the infant may get just enough nutrition to stay alive, his or her muscles, lungs, and mind do grow properly. Additionally, even if they are treated, these children do not “catch up” entirely. They often acquire social problems or eating conditions, even after they begin to have their needs met.
Infants diagnosed with failure to thrive typically become gravely sick from malnutrition. They are often hospitalized for weeks or months. Sometimes, they become so weakened that feeding from a bottle is too tiring. They receive feedings via a tube placed in the stomach, or even in a vein to receive nutrition!
The most tragic component of failure to thrive is that it is so preventable. If moms who have postpartum depression recognize this problem at its onset, they can get help and do not expose their fragile babies to these terrible dangers. Indeed, studies have shown that ninety percent of the women suffering from depression who seek treatment will experience significant improvement!
A variety of approaches is useful in treating postpartum depression. Many doctors use medications, such as antidepressants. These medications are expensive. Nursing mothers should also avoid them. Moreover, antidepressants sometimes cause thoughts of suicide; these medications should be prescribed with extreme caution.
Usually, doctors recommend psychotherapy instead of or in addition to medications. Psychotherapy, however, is costly. Additionally, it often requires a lot of extra time, and many weeks may pass before this therapy begins to help. Regrettably, if the woman’s depression is severe, this may be too long for her baby. If the baby starts showing delayed growth, additional treatment may be needed.
Luckily, other non-medicinal therapy options are available. Two revolutionary, effective approaches that typically yield positive outcomes much more quickly than psychotherapy, and are not nearly as dangerous as drugs, are Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP and hypnosis for depression. These two approaches usually start to work after even a single session. In addition, they are much less expensive than alternative approaches.
Moms who suspect they have postpartum depression need to seek treatment immediately so that their infants are not at risk for critical growth delays. The seriousness of the effects on the infant mandates that any approach work quickly, and have a high rate of effectiveness. NLP and hypnotherapy for depression cost little, work quickly, and are highly effective. This makes these two treatments perfect for helping women with postpartum depression.
Summary: Postpartum depression is depression that begins after childbirth. New moms cannot provide their infants the caring they need to live and grow. This results in failure to thrive, a severe, potentially deadly disorder, affecting the infant. Moms who think they have postpartum depression need to seek treatment as soon as possible. Hypnotherapy and NLP for depression cost little and are extremely effective.
Alan B. Densky, CH is an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He’s helped thousands of clients since 1978. He offers CDs for self-hypnosis depression CDs. He also offers depression hypnosis downloads in English, and Estrés y Depresión en Español.
