Menopause could be at the heart of your recent rise in cholesterol. A new study has shown that it’s menopause and not aging that causes a sharp rise in cholesterol levels of menopausal women of any ethnicity. The cholesterol rise is a problem since it may contribute to heart disease later in life.

Almost all of the women in the study experienced a rise in cholesterol levels around the two years surrounding the final menstrual period. The study is important because the findings can help women be more aware of risk factors for heart disease which may occur around menopause. The study results will be published this month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Dads May Get Postpartum Depression Too

The New York Times recently explored the idea of postpartum depression in fathers. While many doctors haven’t really heard of the disorder, studies have shown that around 4% of fathers experience depression within eight weeks of a child’s birth. Read the whole story, Postpartum Depression Strikes Fathers, Too.

MRI Could Diagnose Dangerous Maternal Condition

Researchers have found that MRI is 90.1% successful in detecting placenta accreta, which may occur when a woman’s placenta attaches too deeply to the uterus during pregnancy. The condition is dangerous when not detected until delivery, and it could result in severe hemorrhaging in the mother or complications for the baby.

While ultrasound can detect placenta accreta, it doesn’t always help with diagnosing subtle cases. Risk factors for the condition include: placenta covers all or part of the cervix, uterine scarring, prior cesarean births and, possibly, maternal age of more than 35 years. The researchers note that not knowing about placenta accreta can be life threatening, but with proper diagnosis, the pregnancy can be monitored more carefully. The study was presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Health Bits: Cholesterol, Dad’s Baby Blues

Researchers did not get into the specifics of why this happens, but with multiple births I’m sure the stress of handling so many babies at once certainly can add to things.

The study was out ” April 1 in the journal Pediatrics.” With Octomom in the news lately, it brings this information to the forefront. Postpartum is a serious disease and new moms should seek help from their doctor at the first sign of depression.

Image: sxc.hu.

Post from: Blisstree

Postpartum Depression for Multiple Births

Flickr: shoebappa

Months before I became pregnant with, well, with the “blighted ovum” that preceded my son, I weaned off the antidepressant that saw me through the death of my mother. I felt fine, really…amazingly so. And I became pregnant almost immediately and then, after the miscarriage, pregnant one more time. Because of my past history of being prone to anxiety issues, I was prepared to fall into the troughs of post-partum depression. I really was. But I didn’t. I am deeply thankful for that.

I had a therapist friend mention to me once the possibility of raging hormones causing the crazy ebb and flow of chemicals in the brain. I give a lot of merit to that, for one, because after my pregnancy, many of the anxiety issues that plagued me seemed to wane, remarkably. Not all, but many.

Shortly after I gave birth to Truman, I went back to work part-time with the March of Dimes, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing birth defects, prematurity and infant mortality. Our chapter was sponsoring a multi-state conference for the infant death review, which is a depressing thought in and of itself. I sat in on one discussion – the autopsy report of the children of Andrea Yates, the Texas woman who killed her five children in June of 2001 while in the midst of postpartum depression. The autopsy photos still hang unpleasantly in my mind and I will always second-guess my decision not to walk out that conference hall.

Earlier this week my old friend Tom – we had be reunited by LinkedIn and thankfully he has forgiven me for being young and stupid when we first met years ago. He now hails from the PR offices of the University of North Carolina where there is a wealth of information for any mother to feed on. He sent me this link from the Star News featuring the University of North Carolina’s Center for Women’s Mood Disorders. It is one of the few – if not the only – in-patient programs of its kind in the country that treats women suffering from severe postpartum depression in a hospital-type setting.

According to UNC, about 10 to 15 percent of new mothers experience postpartum depression, and some fathers experience it as well. It truly is much more common than you would think, and more severe and lingering than the usual “baby blues.” Rarely, about one in every 1,000 pregnancies, a woman is diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, a most severe form of postpartum depression expressing itself with more aggravated symptoms that may involve hallucinations or delusions. Andrea Yates would fall into this category.

My good friend Hannah had a friend who took her life and that of her infant daughter because she just couldn’t cope with her depression. Hannah had no clue her friend was suffering. No one did, she said. I wonder how many people were friends with the Yates and didn’t know Andrea was in misery.

That’s just it. Depression feels wrong. It may not feel like sadness or what you think depression should feel like. It is uncomfortable and irrational, even if somewhere in your clouded mind you give it merit. And it is nothing to be ashamed of. Find your help, or find help for your friends in need. There are so many resources available for us now. Use them. Make your babies grow up to be proud. You will be thankful forever.

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Post from: Blisstree

Postpartum Depression Programs Available

Symptoms of postpartum depression are the same as clinical depression such as sadness, fatigue, hopelessness, and drastic changes in mood and appetite. It can be as excessive as preoccupation with a child’s health or as serious as inward thoughts of harming the baby.

The original theory was that postpartum depression was a result in hormone levels in the body. But studies show that there is no definitive hormone cause. They found that it rather stems from a collection of key issues such as history of depression, fatigue, marital discord, social support and financial support. Because of this, fathers have been sitting right beside the moms facing the same issues.

What I found interesting is that in the study, they determined which parents showed symptoms of depression and then probed parent-child interactions, such as reading, telling stories, and singing songs which are all considered critically important for positive child development. They found that depression in either parent was associated with reduced interaction and that fathers with greater levels of depression interacted with their child much less.

Post from: Blisstree

Fathers Suffer From Postpartum Depression Too