Postpartum Psychosis: Signs, Causes, Treatment and Prevention

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When you give birth to a baby, undoubtedly your
world is filled with extreme happiness and joy.
But this joyous feeling is not the same for all.
Apart from your after-delivery bodily
discomforts, you might find your mood and
emotions to be in a swing. You will have all the
signs of depression for more than 2 to 3 weeks of
your delivery. Such a feeling is known as
postpartum depression. Other than postnatal
depression, you might also be faced with a
serious but rare mental disorder within 2 to 3
days of your babys delivery a condition known
as postpartum psychosis or puerperal psychosis.
(In fact, 1 to 2 out of every 1000 births can
bring about this mental health condition in new
moms after the delivery of the baby). What Is
Postpartum Psychosis? Psychosis is when youve
lost touch from reality. And postpartum
psychosis, is when you have bipolar disorder,
schizophrenia and other scary mental illness
within a few days of your babys birth.
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Symptoms  This condition will occur in you
suddenly. Your symptoms may vary from the
symptoms of the other new mums, but the most
common postpartum psychosis symptoms are 

• Your feeling of delusion, in which you might feel
  someone is trying to harm your baby
• You will have auditory hallucinations, in which
  you will get to hear suggestions to either harm
  yourself or your baby. 
• You will feel irritated, anxious, confused and
  extremely depressed
• You can feel hyperactive or highly energised
• Youll feel very suspicious about everything
  around you

• Youll feel disconnected with your new-born 
• You may have a feeling of disorientation
  whether it is the place or time 
• You may experience severe insomnia

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• Reasons For Such Mental Ill-health
• There is apparently nothing proven about the
  postpartum psychosis causes, but some
  clarifications do exist. And they are 
• Your after-delivery hormonal changes like the
  fluctuation of oestrogen, progesterone, andor
  thyroid hormones 
• If you previously had episodes of psychosis or
  someone in your family earlier had mental health
  issues
• If youve taken psychiatric medicines during the
  pregnancy days, and stopped them for some reason

• Your environmental or biological factors 
• If you have a history of bipolar disorder
• If this is your first baby
• If you had huge mood swings during your pregnancy
  days 
• If youve been feeling sleep deprived
• If you had a traumatic childbirth 
• If youve given birth to subsequent babies. 

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• Treatment of Postpartum Psychosis
• Management of this condition involves a
  combination of treatments and therapies. Some of
  them are
• You need to be hospitalised for your own safety.
  Therefore, you should make your partner and other
  members in your family aware of this condition
  since your pregnancy days. After a week or two of
  your babys birth, if your loved ones think you
  have postpartum psychosis symptoms, they can call
  the medical emergency immediately. And
  hospitalisation is required till such time that
  your symptoms are relieved and your mood is
  stable.
• Youll be given medicines like lithium to
  stabilise your mood, reduce your hallucination,
  panic attacks, improve the hormonal imbalances
  and lower your risk of further complications.
  Some of the antidepressants are also recommended
  to relieve the signs of anxiety, sadness and to
  keep you away from the intention of harming
  yourself and your baby.
• But in case the other treatments have failed to
  give you a sense of relief, electroconvulsive
  therapy (ECT) is often found to be an effective
  postpartum psychosis treatment method.
  (Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an invasive
  form of brain stimulation that has been used
  earlier in cases of major depression and bipolar
  disorder).
• You can also manage your stress and anxiety by
  talking things out maybe with the help of a
  support group or with a specialist. 

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Prevention Make sure that your healthcare
provider, during your days of prenatal or
postnatal care not just looks into your pregnancy
or postpartum related physical and medical
issues, but also looks into your entire
bio-psycho-social model.  The doctors will
prefer quick screening methods to identify your
signs at an early stage of your postpartum and
will guide you with the right postpartum
nutrition and physical activity. With proper
treatment, you might recover from postpartum
psychosis within 2 to 12 weeks. However, some
of you may need 6 to 12 months time more, but
very soon, you will feel like yourself again and
shower your little one with lots of love and
care. You can also visit the blog page of
Cordlife India, to understand more about
childbirth, parenting, pregnancy and cord blood
banking.
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Source https//www.cordlifeindia.com/blog/postpar
tum-psychosis/