Baby Blues Or Something Else?

When you have just had a baby your hormones are in a massive shift. Things are changing significantly as your body moves from pregnancy to postnatal and these changes can have a real impact on your emotions.

I think we probably all know that hormones can impact on our moods and behaviours, lots of us will see that every month and it may be something that you also noticed throughout your pregnancy. You can also factor in that in this postnatal time your are probably feeling exhausted, physically and mentally, with some anxiety or pressure around caring for your new baby.

All in all, most people are not in the best of the states when they start off life with their new baby!

The big change in hormones after birth, a significant drop in oestrogen and progesterone levels, is the main thing responsible for the baby blues. There are other factors, such as the exhaustion that comes into play but the hormonal element is the most significant.

The baby blues typically starts around 2-3 days after birth and can last to around day 14. It is a time of mood swings, tearfulness and irritability. It can affect around 80% of new mums leaving them feeling anxious and overwhelmed in those early days and weeks. Most of the time you can’t even explain why you are feeling tearful or irritable – on the surface it looks like everything is great – but those feelings are very real.

For the majority of women the baby blues is a time to ride out, it goes almost as quickly as it came. Once your hormones recover and you start to heal and adjust you begin to feel like you are bit more settled emotionally. Of course everything might not be 100% back to normal, your body is still recovering and you are caring for a brand new baby 24/7, but your mood is more settled. Making sure you have some support in place and being gentle with your expectations can help you through this time.

But what happens if those symptoms don’t go away? Or they do but a few weeks or months later they are back?

Figures vary, but around 10-15% of women experience postnatal depression (PND) in the year after their baby is born. It can be anytime in that first year, it isn’t necessarily something that happens straight away (and often isn’t). Some of the feelings might be the same as the baby blues but they don’t just lift in a week or two.

The low mood, tearfulness, irritability, exhaustion, lack of sleep, withdrawing or shut down that you experience starts to impact on your day to day life and your relationships.

If you feel you are experiencing PND it is important to reach out to someone for help. This could be a conversation with friends and family and some self help or extra support, or it might mean contacting your health visitor or GP who can refer you for talking therapy or arrange medication if you need it. If you want to know more about PND https://pandasfoundation.org.uk/is a really good organisation to start with.

If you think you may have PND don’t delay seeking help. Left untreated it is likely to get worse. It can be really hard to say you have PND to those around you, but the chances are they will have noticed things aren’t quite right and will be ready and willing to help you. They probably didn’t want to raise it or didn’t know how best to support you.

How do you spot the difference between baby blues and PND?

For both a lot of the symptoms and feelings are the same but baby blues is linked to a specific time – 3-14 days postnatal – and resolves itself. PND can be anytime and will not usually resolve itself, generally needing something even if it is self help methods and more support.

To add, there are a range of things which can affect your mental health during pregnancy and after birth – anxiety and OCD are probably the other most common things. If you are finding things tough but don’t fit the PND profile it is still worth seeking help. You won’t be the only person feeling this way, it might just be something not talked about in your social circle.

Don’t be afraid of looking for support. Those first weeks and months can be so tough and doing it alone is not easy. Needing some help from family or friends or even professional support like a doula is not a sign of weakness or that you can’t parent your baby well enough. It is a strength to reach out and make sure you have everything you need to do this new role in the very best way you can.

Beth x