“Depleted Mom Syndrome”

Here’s a quote from a Canadian Parents article by Rick Hanson that I simply must put out to the world. Right now:

• If she nurses her baby (recommended if possible) she needs to pour about a quarter of her total caloric intake into her child, draining herself of many important minerals and other nutrients. Her baby literally feeds on her flesh. Her hormones and physiology flip-flop during pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing and the other systems in her body may never full recover. Her immune system becomes less effective. Brain chemistry alters and neurotransmitters involved in everything from sleep to depression get out of balance. Oh, and the biological clock keeps ticking so she and her husband decide to conceive another child!
• I’ve been graphic about the facts because many mothers feel unnecessarily guilty about being so drained and upset, and because many fathers (including myself) haven’t really gotten it about the shock of pregnancy, childbirth, nursing, and motherhood altogether. Men and women can both think that “she has to snap out of it,” or worse that the mother is being self-indulgent, lazy, or over-dramatic.
• Well, she can’t just snap out of it. I believe that many women experience a clinical syndrome after a child that goes well beyond postpartum depression. It has an objective reality; it is not “only in her head.” With tongue slightly in cheek, I call it “DMS”: Depleted Mom Syndrome.

Call me slightly overdramatic (I have been awake for too many hours out of the last 24), but I actually feel understood right now.