(Warning: This article touches on sensitive topics such as depression, self-harm, and suicide)
Delivering a baby into this world is one of the most exciting moments for a mama. This signifies the start of a new chapter in life, one that’s filled with milestones and moments worth celebrating. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily the case for many mamas.
While bringing your little one into this world can indeed be something worth celebrating and looking forward to, it can also be a time where a mama may struggle. Among the many complications that may occur after childbirth, postpartum depression happens to be one of the most common conditions that a mama can come down with.
Despite how scary this may sound, postpartum depression can be treatable. What’s more, one of the most common ways to treat this is something very simple: babywearing!
In this article, we’ll touch a bit on what postpartum depression is and how babywearing can help a mama overcome it.
On Postpartum Depression
You may have heard the phrase “postpartum depression” thrown around a lot. But, what is it exactly? As the name implies, it’s depression that happens around the postpartum period–the time after a mama delivers a baby. Now, some may say that this can also be considered a case of the “baby blues.” However, postpartum depression has symptoms that last longer and are more severe than what you get during the “baby blues.”
For a mama to have the consideration of this type of depression, she will typically experience some of the following symptoms:
- A depressed mood or extreme mood swings
- Frequent crying episodes
- Withdrawal from relationships or social interactions
- Either a loss of appetite or an increase in eating
- Difficulty sleeping or oversleeping
- A general loss of energy
- Loss of interest in activities that were once enjoyable
- Anxiety (especially with regard to being a good mother)
- Thoughts of self-harm or harming your baby
- Frequent and recurrent thoughts of suicide
Persistence of any of these symptoms should already be a tell-tale sign that a mama may have postpartum depression. It’s scary to think about, having yourself come down with this condition. However, despite this, there are ways to help treat this and make a mama’s life easier.
Babywearing and Postpartum Depression
Among the many ways that people try to treat postpartum depression, one of the most common and straightforward methods involves babywearing. So far, a number of studies have pointed out that babywearing has several benefits that can help a mama with postpartum depression. What’s more, this method of treatment is rather straightforward and accessible. So, it makes perfect sense that this is one of the most common ways a mama can help prevent and treat their postpartum depression.
What’s Babywearing?
As the name implies, babywearing is the act of wearing your baby. More specifically, this is when you “wear” your baby by putting them in a carrier that then attaches or ties to a parents’ body. So, if you’ve seen parents carrying their babies in what looks like a harness or a wrap, then that’s babywearing!
How Does It Help With Postpartum Depression
At this point, you might be wondering how this helps with postpartum depression. Well, multiple studies have observed that when a mother has frequent, close physical contact with their baby, the mother’s body gets stimulated to undergo hormonal changes. Among those hormonal changes would be an increase in the production of oxytocin, which is also known as one of your body’s happy hormones. An increase in this can help lessen the chances of depressive symptoms manifesting themselves.
Aside from that, another effect studies have observed would be the reduction in the production of cortisol, which is the stress hormone. Normally, high levels of cortisol negatively impact you, putting you under a feeling of stress. This feeling of stress can then affect how you feel in general as well as your body’s other functions. So, with less cortisol, your body will also feel less stressed.
It’s true that most studies say close skin-to-skin contact, especially right after birth, helps the babies in several ways. However, you can also see how it can help a mother as well, especially those at risk for postpartum depression. Knowing all this, you now have more reasons to do babywearing.
A Little Thing To Take Note Of
Postpartum depression can affect both parents, not only mamas. What’s more, it can manifest differently per person. However, like the symptoms mentioned earlier, there are some signs that make it easy to pick up. While it’s true that babywearing can help reduce the occurrence of postpartum depression, it’s still good to get some help if you think you or your partner are experiencing any symptoms. That way, you can get even better help and figure out what else you can do to make your life as parents easier and happier.
