Baby Blues Are a Warning Sign Not a Right of Passage

If you have ever had a child, you have been told, warned, informed about the existence of a condition called the Baby Blues. New parents are told it is normal. “Oh, it happens but don’t worry, it’s just a couple weeks”. If you have lived through this normal experience called the Baby Blues, then you can vouch for the fact that it is anything but normal. The Baby Blues may be typical, it may occur often, but the state it causes is far from normal. What is this condition that we are told will come and go like the breeze yet wrecks your emotional state on the level of a Category 5 hurricane?

The Baby blues are medically defined as the two-week period directly following childbirth, in which women can develop symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and heightened emotions. It is often proposed as just a little blip of sadness, as indicative by its cutesy moniker. In reality, the Baby Blues can be a torrential experience that has lasting impacts for families. The cause has yet to be pinpointed but medical thought has long been that the drastic decreases in hormones contributes to its development. Previous incidents of mental health disorders, family history, as well multiple pregnancies can all be risk factors for developing the Baby Blues.

We treat the Baby Blues as a transient state that will resolve, but we should not. We should be treating it as a warning sign, a canary in the coal mine of postpartum depression and anxiety. Women are 4 to 11 times more likely to develop Postpartum Depression if they experienced the Baby Blues. Research shows that 80% of new mothers experience the Baby Blues, while only 15% are being diagnosed with Postpartum Depression, it is clear we are woefully under informed about the role that the Baby Blues may play in perinatal and postpartum mental health. Our perspective of the Baby Blues needs to adjust.

If the Baby Blues are making a significant impact on your ability to recover, then you or someone you love should call your doctor immediately and ask to be screened for Postpartum Depression and Anxiety. If you have an inkling but aren’t sure, you do not have to be sure. You do not need to have obvious symptoms to be checked. 50% of women who need treatment for Postpartum mental illnesses do not get it. Always seek it out and determine your course of action later. Treatment, typically talk and/or pharmaceutical therapy, is very effective in the treatment of postpartum related mental health illnesses.

It is important to understand that the symptoms caused by the Baby Blues feel very abnormal despite how the condition may be described by others. We need to begin treating the Baby Blues as an alert to be heeded and investigated, not a residual waning symptom of childbirth. Most importantly, remember none of this is your fault. We can't compel our brain chemistry and hormones to work properly, as much as we wish that to be possible. Give yourself grace and seek help, even if it is “just” the Baby Blues.

If you need more information, please check out the March of Dimes.