I went to the dr today for my monthly checkup. I am 21 weeks and found out today that I’m having a little girl!!!
Anyways, I mentioned to him that I have been having a hell of a time coping with..life. Everything upsets me and gets me going and I am always anxious and can’t kick it. I am having a hard time getting thru my days. He had me do this little screening thing. One was anxiety, the other depression. He said my anxiety one was fine (he just caught me in a good moment!) but my depression one was very high. He thinks I might have Postpartum Depression. He prescribed me Lexapro. Have any of you gone thru this? Or even been on Lexapro? What might it do to me (make me tired, etc.)? I saw something just now (after I took one!) about antidepressants being linked to birth defects?

i had my son 4 months ago today, about a week ago i started feeling extremely depressed. now is it possible to be having postpartum this late? this depression is just so random and nothing really brought it on. and if it’s pregnancy hormones (doubt it) i would have conceived on either the 10th or 11th (can’t remember which night the condom broke and i’ll ask my husband later) of this month so it seems WAY too soon to be experiencing “mood swings”. so is post partum depression possible this late after having a baby? it’s really effecting me. i can’t sleep, having trouble eating and sometimes i feel like i just can’t stand my son and that makes me feel even WORSE. i’ve also been feeling kind of nauseated right when i wake up. so postpartum depression???

Hi, my baby will be a year old this month, I have been suffering from prenatal depression since pregnancy, and got worse after giving birth, I had realy bad, I’m on klonopim for anxiety, if you suffered from postpartum depression, did you decide to have another kid? did you have depression then? I want to have one more, a little girl. But I am sooo scared to get pregnant again, because i’m afraid i will completely loose my mind. If i get pregnant i would like to but maybe ina year or two, so my kids can grow up together.

ever since she was about 15 she has had terrible mood swing, on sec she will be happy and the slightest thing could flip her into very bad rages! she even hit me a lot during these rages. she is 20 no and having a baby and the doctor has put her on anti depressants because she is really down. me & mum are worried she is prone to postpartum depression because of her current depression and past. is this true or does she have the same chance as anyone at developing it?
the doctor put her on them during the pregnancy, she has never taken them before. so if the doctor thinks its ok then i guess it is

I am 28 weeks pregnant and bi-polar. This puts me at higher risk for post-partum depression/pyschosis. I have been stable and medication free for over two years, and I’m planning on breastfeeding, so I’d like to avoid medical intervention (as long as I’m not putting my baby at risk) in the event that complications come up post-partum. For those of you who have experienced post-partum depression, or know of someone who has, what was your experience? Did the doctor jump right to medication, or were there other options available (like counseling or support groups)?
My ob/gyn told me I was high risk for post-partum depression and that I’d have to be monitored closely.

I was on the way to a store tonight and heard a sappy song on the radio and just broke down crying. My daughter is almost 5 months old and I have been fine other than that. Could it be postpartum or are my hormones still out of whack? I still get teary eyed at certain commercials which I did during pregnancy.

I accidentally got pregnant. I’m against abortion, so that’s not even in the cards. The way I feel right now is that I don’t want an abortion, I don’t want to have the kid, and I don’t want to put it up for adoption. I don’t want it to be my problem, I don’t feel a connection with it, I just feel as if its ruined my life and strained every relationship that I have. Then there’s other times that I’m so incredibly excited and I love it so much and I want to go to Babies R Us and look at all the baby stuff. I feel like an awful and irresponsible mommy-to-be for feeling this way.

Is it possible to suffer from depression during pregnancy or is it just hormones? Is there a name for what I’m feeling? I want this emotional rollercoaster to pass so badly. I want to enjoy my pregnancy and my child, I just can’t right now, and I don’t know why..

What do you believe the biggest contributing factor to PPD (depression after giving birth) is?
A) Hormones
B) Family history of Depression
C) How the mother feels about/during pregnancy
D) The living environment/situation/experiences after the child is born

any details or advice about depression would help me understand pregnancy.

First pregnancy: Practically textbook for first 8mths. I worked up to 8mths complete w/o problems (just wanted to nap). In the last month I developed mild PIH & was induced at 38 weeks. Afte 27hrs of labor I ended up with a cesarean. Recovered so quickly I started training for my first marathon just 3mths later! I had no doubt I could do this again 2-3 more times! Bring on the kids!

Second pregnancy: Pregnancy was discovered by sudden onset of abdominal pain which the doc’s chalked up to muscle pull after deciding baby wasn’t ectopic. Abdominal pain came off & on through first 2/3rds pregnancy. Morning sickness was mild (nausea w/o vomiting) but lasted beyond the first trimester this time. Only got two weeks w/o nausea before all over chronic pain set in for the duration of the pregnancy. No one could tell me why or how to make it stop except to “slow down” & “get a massage”. I dismissed this advice as impractical- I was working part time, had a 2 year old to take care of, & there certainly wasn’t money in our budget for a professional massage! I ended up totally miserable, doing nothing beyond the necessary toward the end. I even quit my part time job 2 weeks early because I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just kept telling myself it would all be over once I gave birth. WRONG! It actually got worse. Following a 64hr labor (NOT a typo!) I ended up with another cesarean. (Turns out there is something funky about my pelvis *shape* that makes my kids turn the wrong way & get REALLY stuck.) That part (the labor), believe it or not, was not that bad. What was horrible is what followed: 6+ months of nonstop lochia (w/o anemia!), 7 episodes of what felt like food poisoning in the space of 3 months, chronic fatigue, random attacks of pain that would completely debilitate me for 30 seconds to 5 minutes at a time, postpartum depression, and test after test no one could tell me why or what to do about any of it.

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