A Home Test for Post Partum Depression

Post partum depression can occur just days after a mother gives birth or up to one year later. Working, maintaining a marriage, caring for other children, preparing healthy meals are all additional jobs on top of the all-consuming task of baby care. The condition can sneak up on mothers, zapping our energy, our self-esteem and, in extreme cases, create tragedies I cannot bear to think of.

I found this post partum depression quiz on the Kelly Mom site. I think checking in to take the quiz and, if necessary, sharing the results with your health care provider is good advice.

I don’t have post partum depression, but I do know I am a lot happier when I manage to do these things:

- Sleep. I am not a napper, but that is not a good thing. If you can get an afternoon nap in, do it. Going to bed at 10pm every night instead of napping helps me get through the day.

- Make sure I play with the baby every day or evening. Nursing, changing diapers, bathing and soothing away cries are activities that consume vast amount of the day. It’s surprisingly easy to forget to take the time to gaze at the baby in adoration, to just talk and tickle and smile and play with them. Engaging with my three year-old and the baby together is not only important to helping them bond, but a great pleasure as well.

- Get out for a walk every day. I carry the baby in a carrier against my chest. Our shared body heat plus warm clothes keep us cosy enough to go out in all weathers. I am from an area of Canada where the weather is always extremely hot, very cold, or its raining. While I don’t go out in blizzards or floods, I know I occasionally shock people when I take the baby out in rain and snow now that I live in Germany. I learned a long time ago that waiting for clear, sunny skies to do anything, would mean that nothing would ever get done. I find, as long as I have warm footwear and an umbrella, walking in the rain is actually pretty nice and fresh snow has its own pleasures for both me and the baby.

- Eat properly. I know, easier said than done. To be honest, I love treats. Oatmeal cookies, marzipan cake, Nutella and waffles are all sweets that have cross my lips in the past three days. But, enough has been written about how refined sugars give moods a lift and then…crash. So, when I feel low, bored, distressed or sad I make it a point not to eat sweets and risk feeling any lower twenty minutes later.
- Talk to other mothers. Community-based or commercial playgroups, early learning centres, invitations for coffee, wherever and whenever women and their children gather, go. Every Friday morning I head out to the English language playgroup an hour from home. It takes a lot of time and effort to get there and the baby really isn’t old enough to play with the other kids. We go for me. Talking to other parents, learning that their problems are not unlike mine, and sharing solutions is the highlight of my week.

- Saying no to too much for too little. OK, I am still working on this one. As a self-employed freelancer I trained myself to find and take whatever work I could whenever I could get it. Not ever job is as lucrative as another and some of the jobs I have done late at night or early in the morning were neither financially rewarding nor personally satisfying. Sometimes, the loss of time is not worth the extra money.