You just had a beautiful, healthy baby. You’re supposed to beoverwhelmed with joy ... right?

Despite society’s expectation of new mothers to be blissfully happy after the arrival of a new baby, nearly all women experience the “baby blues” in the weeks after childbirth. In addition, 10-15 percent of women experience a full-blown clinical depression – called postpartum depression – after childbirth.

Kim Crist, 33, of Springfield was hospitalized for postpartum depression a week and a half after her daughter Kate was born last August.

“I was OK for the first few days after we brought her home. I was so excited that she was finally here because I had such a difficult pregnancy. But after a few nights of no sleep, I started feeling very down and was crying at the end of every day because I was so tired. I was very overwhelmed when my husband went back to work and didn’t think I could handle the responsibility on my own,” Crist says. “I started having trouble controlling my thoughts, feeling trapped and that my life was over. I felt this impending sense that I might hurt myself, though I never felt that I would hurt Kate.”

A neighbor and friend of Crist’s recognized what was happening and convinced her to get help. She called Crist’s husband, Trevor, and asked him to come home from work to care for Kate while she took Crist to St. John’s ER. She was admitted to the Marian Center by a sympathetic nurse who had also experienced postpartum depression.

“Some women’s brains are just really vulnerable, especially after childbirth and all the hormones they lose,” says Dr. Diane Sanford, a St. Louis-based clinical psychologist specializing in women’s reproductive mental health and co-developer of the Women’s Healthcare Partnership. Dr. Sanford spoke in May at a St. John’s women’s health forum about postpartum depression.

St. John’s recently launched a postpartum mood disorders program, a new service of St. John’s Behavioral Health Services. The program works cooperatively with and endorses the St. Louis-based Mother To Mother Telephone Support Program, with which Dr. Sanford is affiliated.

“Even if a mother isn’t sure if what she is experiencing is the baby blues or a more serious problem, she needs to make a point of talking to her OB/GYN or primary care physician or call 417-820-3127 for a thorough assessment. That way she can receive help before the symptoms become more severe,” says Kathy Forson, RN, BSN, executive director of St. John’s Behavioral Health Services.

Dr. Sanford adds that the myth in American culture is that motherhood is supposed to be a time of joy and bliss. When that time is complicated by depression, women often experience guilt, fear abandonment by their husbands and worry that their baby may be taken away.

“I felt really guilty about leaving Kate and was worried about it, but I knew my husband would take good care of her,” Crist says. “My nurse at the Marian Center gave me a sleep aid so I could finally getsome rest, and I saw a psychiatrist, Dr. Shahid Insaf, who talked to me about postpartum depression and the risk factors for it, which I had. I started taking an antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication and in a few days, felt strong enough to go home.”

Once she was home, Crist’s mom came down from Chicago for another visit and unlike during her previous stay, Crist took full advantage of her help.

“My mom and my husband helped me with Kate at night so I wasn’t up the entire night, and we made sure to get out of the house at least once during the day. After she went home, my neighbor and my mother-in-law started watching Kate once a week so I could have a little time to myself, and that helped a lot,” Crist says.

She continued to see Dr. Insaf and started seeing St. John’s Behavioral Health clinicians Monika Strachocka-Kile, LCSW, and Tonya Boone, LCSW, who specializes in treating women with postpartum mood disorders. Boone trained with Dr. Sanford in St. Louis last fall.

“Therapy gave me a new perspective and gave me the confidence that I could get through this. It taught me not to always see things in absolutes and that it’s OK to do things differently than others," she says.

Medication, talk therapy and accepting help with the baby helped tremendously, Crist says.

“My advice to all new parents is just to be aware that postpartum depression can hit you out of left field, and if it does, to seek help immediately.”

RISK FACTORS

If you have three or more of these risk factors, OR, if you have at least two risk factors PLUS three or more of the symptoms on the symptom check list, speak with your health care provider.

❏ prior episode of postpartum depression
❏ prior personal episode of depression or mental health problems
❏ family history of PPD or mental health problems
❏ difficult relationship with partner
❏ multiple life stressors (e.g. move, job change) over past year
❏ lack of social support
❏ difficult/complicated pregnancy
❏ fertility issues/problems
❏ perfectionism, need for control
❏ past traumatic birth
❏ miscarriage or pregnancy loss
❏ history of abuse
❏ thyroid/endocrine problems
❏ moderate to severe PMS.

SYMPTOMS

If you have had three or more of these symptoms continuously for the past two to four weeks, speak with your health care provider immediately.