Today is a blogging day of action in support of education about and the treatment of post partum or post natal depression. For up to a year after giving birth, women can experience horrific mood swings, feelings of worthlessness, fears of a conspiracy to harm them or their baby, or a numbness to all of their experiences. This is a hormonal condition that, in it’s most severe form, post partum psychosis, has lead women to harm themselves and their families.

The news about post partum psychosis is not encouraging. In an examination of medical records, Danish researchers found that as many as one in a thousand women suffer from Post Partum Psychosis in the year after giving birth. The results, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association quantified the cases of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression or another psychotic condition requiring hospitalization.