Mental Health In Pregnancy

For a woman being pregnant, having a baby and motherhood are some of the most beautiful experiences she will ever have. It's like the zenith of life and all its joys. But at the same time it's a very sensitive phase that she goes through. It's a time period of marked rise in hormonal levels which bring about mood swings, depressions, schizophrenia, etc. Although a mental disorder may occur at any time during a person's life, in women this is more common during teen years and 30s and this is the age during which most women get pregnant. But for a pregnant woman, the danger of falling mental health or a mental illness is even greater because it endangers her baby's health as well her own.



For many women, depression is a major mental illness which they face during their pregnancy. In addition, they also risk facing postpartum depression, also known as the baby blues, some time after delivery. About the most important thing to help a pregnant woman have a safe and healthy pregnancy is to keep in constant contact with her physician and psychologist. As far as taking mental health medication during pregnancy is concerned, this will depend entirely on the person in question. Some women are not severely ill and can have a safe pregnancy with the help of their psychologist alone. For others, the mental illness mandates medication as well as psychological therapy. Also, not all medication can be taken during pregnancy. There will definitely be some change in the medication you take and alterations in your therapeutic routine. Here, the crucial element is to keep in constant touch with your physician and psychiatrist.

So how can you consider yourself a ‘maybe' for mental depression during your pregnancy? For starters, if you have a personal history of depression or if depression runs in your family, you are more likely to be depressed during your pregnancy. Make sure your physician knows about this background at the early stages of your pregnancy, this will help him monitor your progress and watch out for symptoms. Also, if you have relationship problems, or the pregnancy was unplanned, chances are your pregnancy will depress you. Having a miscarriage prior to a successful pregnancy may also result in depression. Another risk factor is the sexual, emotional or physical abuse that may have happened during earlier years. Abuse of any form makes a woman more sensitive to hormonal changes in the body. In all these cases, the best thing to do is keeping your physician informed from the very start and following all precautionary measure that he or she details out.

If you're pregnant but not sure whether you have depression or some other form of mental illness, try going back to how you've been feeling or acting as of late. Have you had difficulty sleeping or are you oversleeping? Has there unexplained weight loss despite being pregnant or has there been a drop in your appetite? Other symptoms may be unexplainable and unusual mood swings, you should consult with your physician. If you're looking after a pregnant woman, these symptoms may mean that she needs help and support for depression. The sooner such problems are tackled, the healthier both mother and child will be.

• Emma Bullock
• 01/01/2009, 10:59 PM
• 0 Comments