Don't ignore postpartum psychosis

Pregnancy and childbirth is a time of sudden mental and emotional changes in a mother's life, exposing a woman to many unusual emotional and mental problems. Postpartum mental disorder is a great danger to every family, every pregnant mother needs to be detected and intervened early.

Many women fall into extreme confusion when faced with motherhood. Their health has not yet recovered after giving birth, they have to deal with how to take care of the baby, how to eat nutritiously to have enough milk, monitor the baby's every breath, movement, and pressure from the family. family, parents or even husband. The times of constant sleeplessness and indifference to people's emotions and moods make many pregnant women themselves fall into depression and mental disorders. And there were a lot of serious consequences that happened.
Postpartum women have many symptoms of depression from severe to mild. Mild is quiet, moody, does not want to interact with people, stops eating and has negative reactions. Severe depression can mean not contacting anyone, suicidal tendencies, killing one's own children...
Sometimes difficulties in child care or lack of encouragement and support from husband, family It also causes postpartum mother to fall into depression. Psychologists say that postpartum psychological changes are very complicated.
Postpartum women have to go through labor with great changes to a woman's mental and physical health. In addition to major changes in health, endocrine also changes seriously leading to unexpected changes in psychophysiology. According to statistics, in the postpartum period, up to 85% of women suffer from mood disorders. In most women, these symptoms are relatively mild, but some women have persistent and severe symptoms.
In modern society, many mothers after the birth of a baby only raise their children alone, without the family's attention, support, and emotional attention... the more at risk of depression. Many women after giving birth have conflicts with their husbands about economics or emotions, dissatisfaction with the family, illness, economy... have been thinking, choosing to kill their children and commit suicide.

Many real tragic cases stem from postpartum depression but without counseling and intervention, leading to mental disorders and dangerous behaviors.
On June 12, 33-day-old Vu Viet Anh was deprived of her life by her own mother when she was discovered lying face down in a basin of water. In Binh Thuan during the Lunar New Year, Hoai, due to postpartum depression, chose to commit suicide with her 7-month-old baby after relatives returned to her hometown to celebrate Tet.
In 2015 in Bac Giang also made waves with the case of a mother with postpartum depression killing her baby less than 2 months old. The mother used a knife to kill her 6-year-old child, then was discovered while continuing to threaten the life of her 2-month-old baby and herself.
That same year, in Hanoi, a family discovered early that a mother was severely depressed because her child was too fussy. Despite being taken to treatment and taking medicine, the family was subjective when they saw that the mother's mood seemed to be stable, so after a while, they let the mother and daughter sleep together. But that same night, the family was shocked to see that the mother used a knife to slash at her son, taking the life of the 4-month-old baby.
There are many, many heartbreaking events that happen when the mother after giving birth suffers from mental disorders, depression without timely support and intervention.

According to experts, postpartum psychosis is a type of short-term mental disorder consisting of three stages: sadness; depression and psychosis. According to statistics, after giving birth, up to 30-85% of postpartum women fall into a sad state with emotional symptoms such as crying easily, fluctuating easily, insomnia, anxiety.

Postpartum depression accounts for 10-15% of cases with depression, excessive anxiety, and insomnia. More seriously, the woman fell into postpartum psychosis with manifestations of agitation, aggression, low or paranoid mood, excitement, depersonalization, and disorganized behavior.
According to WHO, 1 in 7 women who have just given birth have postpartum depression. 85% of women after giving birth have abnormal psychological symptoms, even severe and mild mental illnesses.
Depressive disorders, postpartum psychosis develop differently in each person, mentally stable people are less affected, and people who are easily excited and inhibited will be more affected. Postpartum depression without intervention and counseling to help pregnant women return to normal will lead to mental disorders and unexpected consequences.
Postpartum psychosis not only directly affects the mother but also affects the life and health of the child and other family members. A mother with psychosis will be paranoid, unable to care for her child and risk killing her child.
Psychotic mothers who commit suicide are 62% more likely to commit suicide. Therefore, in order to ensure the health of mothers and children, to avoid unfortunate consequences, early intervention is imperative.
In which, the role of relatives is especially important because the relatives themselves will monitor and detect abnormal psychological and physiological changes early for timely handling, leading to psychological treatment facilities.
Postpartum mental disorders, psychological counseling is the main treatment, in severe cases, supportive drugs can be used, but the role of relatives is extremely important. Relatives must help and care for the mother after giving birth to return to her normal life.

Therefore, if you see mothers after giving birth have many strange symptoms such as crying, feeling sorry for themselves, not daring to breastfeed, afraid to take care of their children, not communicating with anyone, not eating or drinking, soulless, insomnia , screaming and crying for no reason ... need to go to a psychological examination and diagnose for early intervention. Before giving birth, mothers can take antenatal classes and prenatal counseling to have a ready and stable mentality to help themselves feel secure during childbirth.