First and foremost, I support your right to birth your child at home. Second, I support your right to seek alternatives for any lingering hormonal imbalances that may have occurred as a result of childbirth, or from general depression.
Like you, I am a live and let live individual.
While I can definitely understand your concern for the potentially damaging consequences of *any* type of medication on an unborn child, I would ask you to temper the rhetoric.
I am a right-brain, logic oriented woman (who consistently ranks over 70% male metacognitive processes when tested), a college educated professional, and a devoted mother of 3 children. No one would ever mistake me for a "hysterical" or emotional female.
Following the birth of my son, I experienced a mild form of the "baby blues." Combined with new mother concerns, sleep deprevation, and improper eating, it took about 6 weeks before I felt like myself again.
I used to dismiss women who claimed to be suffering from post-partum, until I experienced severe post-partum following the birth of my second child, a daughter. To say that the experience was hellish is an understatement. It was a horrifying ordeal to feel as if you were constantly outside of yourself, to no longer recognize the person you had become, to no longer be able to articulate thoughts, retain information, or process stimulii logically. Explosive reactions, unpredictable mood swings, deep melancholy, and a rejection of affection were all part of my daily landscape for nearly a year. The worst part was, I knew something was wrong...but I simply could not fix it! This, in turn, increased my frustration and compounded the situation.
I did not seek medical treatment; it took almost a year before I was finally myself again. It was a year of my life lost, a year of my daughter's life lost, a year of my son's life lost. My deepest regret was not setting aside my foolish pride and seeking medical assistance sooner.
In preparing for the birth of my 3rd child, I insisted my husband take me to my doctor and demand antidepressants if I exhibited any of the same symptoms. Thankfully, the birth of my second son was a repeat of the first, with just a mild case of the baby blues that ended quickly.
For other mothers, though, each case of post-partum grows progressively worse.
Just as you would appreciate others being respectful of your decisions, folks who have suffered post-partum would appreciate the same respect from you.
I respect all mothers. No matter how they are living their day to day lives.
I do not respect an all encompassing evil psychiatric profession that fudges the research, bribes the psychiatrists doing it, and then lies to the public about what that research says.
I have great compassion for moms who suffer with emotional illness, I experienced a post partum psychosis after the birth of my first child and was court ordered to eat psychiatric meds for a year. A year also lost to my child.
We all have to live and let live, but I think the rhetorical tone was just about right given the lies of the medical profession and the pharmaceutical companies that give them their marching orders.
Read the Breggin article it is so well researched, the notes and sources are almost as long as the text: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-peter-breggin/pregnant-mothers-should-n_b_57270.html
(I know it’s huffington post, but conservatives tend to be just a tad naive when it comes to medical issues.)
Story topper! - but it is a true story. Nobody know how bad PPD can be until they go through it. I don't know how you made it a full year. I flipped when my son was 6 weeks old. Dropped him and his sister off at daycare and drove to the local chaplain. When the chaplain's assistant asked me what I wanted to be seen for I said, “I need to be committed right now. I just need somebody to tell me how to get committed. I don't have a brain and I can't be a good mom so I need to be committed.”
Those wonderful men sprung into action so fast that everything turned into a blur. They drove me to the Nuremberg ER and wouldn't leave my side for a *minute*, not even for the exams.
I don't remember most of that day, but I do remember the dr and the hospital shrink coming in to give the diagnosis.
- I hadn't had more than 4 hours of sleep each night for 6 straight weeks because of a combination of a colicky baby, a demanding 20 month old and a hubby working 16 hour days.
- My blood pressure was 45 over “unreadable”. I was in shock from blood loss and needed a transfusion. (*That* explained the fainting spells!)
- I had a fever of 103’ from a “Maternal Infection” from the birth which had gone septic.
I guess one could say that I was “very sick” and had postpartum psychosis.
Once my body healed (two months of weekly IV’s, vitamins, sleep and antibiotics) I was put on an antidepressant and I was finally able to function.
Moms need HELP! Moms need NAPS!! Moms need somebody to strong-arm them into taking a BREAK!
Because moms want to be strong. They'll push themselves beyond human limits and will wonder why they're too “weak” to handle it. (eyes rolling)