Sunday, January 25, 2009

Post Partum Depression? How to care for a newborn?

It always amazes me after even a home birth, you still get freebie materials for taking care of newborns.

This past week I got a phone call from the county health ledger.. a health association. The lady that called was very personable, I have to say. However she was asking about how the baby was doing, if I had any questions, what his stats were when he was born and if he had any vax's yet, yadda yadda yadda. Well, I told her we put off vaccination indefinately. Not sure I should have told her that, but I said "I know that can be a hot topic" and she very kindly said, no problem, I understand.

A couple days later I get this pack in the mail talking about how to take care of your newborn. Now I told this lady this way my 8th baby. So this made dh and I laugh. The first thing I asked my dh when he was looking over the pamplets was:

"So, how do they reccomend putting your baby down to sleep this year?"

Seems like every time I have a baby they change their tune on that one. This year "they" say you are supposed to lay them on their backs. Pffft. I think when I had my oldest that was a huge no-no. Isaac sleeps on his side for the most part.

Oh, and here is a good one...
"NEVER allow the infant to sleep on the couch especially with an adult."
Oh great... Dh loves to put Isaac across his chest and prop him so he won't fall off and snooze. I guess we broke that rule!

"Parents should never co-sleep with an infant." Uhoh. I do like to nurse/sleep with Isaac sometimes. Of course, I don't toss and turn usually, and I am very aware when he is in the bed, and so is dh. Usually I do these in the morning, after dh is up and getting ready for work anyway.

Here's one I don't understand at all...
"but baby at the foot of the crib". They show a little diagram. They want us to put the baby so his feet are close to the foot of the crib. WHY???? I don't understand that one at all. Right now he is sleeping in the portacrib, crosswise. However I can put him in without waking him up! LOL

Okay... here's what got me. The stuff in parenthesis are my own snide comments.

Are you a mom, with a baby, who tends to...
~cry for no reason? (Goodness, am I a woman with hormones?"
~feel "panic"?
~worry a lot about your health or the health of your baby? (what mother doesn't?)
~Have trouble sleeping or relaxing? (yeah, like when the baby is awake, or crying, or doing his pre-wake up snorting...)
~Stay away from other people (yup..as much as possible. It is flu/cold season and I have a newborn for crying out loud!)
~Have a change in appetite? (you mean like eating more because of nursing a baby? doh!)
~Have difficulty making decisions (does the term "sleep deprivation" mean anything to you?)

If you have some of these feelings or behaviors, you may be depressed, even thouh other people may not see your depression.


According to this pamphlet I have ppd, and no wonder, since apparently I am at high risk from having a stillbirth. Oh, and it has gone on past the two week mark so I am supposed to be seeking professional help.

Yeah right.

Is it me, or do those sypmtoms seem to apply to more than ppd and are too generic to be helpful? Maybe it is just another ploy of the medical establishment to get more money? I know there are women who really do suffer, I'm not making light of that, but those symptoms could apply to so many other things.

Oh, there is a list of things to do for yourself ALONG with getting professional help. One of the things is to "Look for humor. Have fun and Laugh." Well, just as I was finishing up reading about depression and how one of the symptoms is a feeling of hopelessness, "Taps" started playing on the radio. :doh: It was being used as part of an intro for a hymn "Nearer My God To Thee" which of course conjured up visions of Titanic... talk about feeling hopeless!

Okay... enough babbling... there is no real point to this post. Back to whatever you were doing. :)

ETA: I was reading this over to Dale who responded:
"I must have post partum depression too." LOL!

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