Vanessa Mills had eagerly anticipated the birth of her child. Despite high blood pressure and early admission to the hospital, the first time mom of 30 plus was anticipating the experience.

Then things started to go downhill.
She did a caesarean section with her blood pressure still high. Tired and exhausted she found she could get very little rest in the hospital because of the noise that resulted from refurbishing work being done there and the wailing of babies.

"Babies were constantly crying all throughout the nights. It was like every 10 minutes there was a baby crying for the whole week that I was there," she said.
To her it seemed like she was going mad and soon she was having crying fits.
Eventually she was transferred to another room with less noise. Her blood pressure went down and she was discharged.
But everything did not return to normal as she had difficulties adjusting to her baby's sleeping habits as well as breastfeeding.

She was not producing much milk.
"She would often be on my breast for hours and I could not get any rest," Mills says. "For the first four months, I struggled to breastfeed and I pumped my breast and did all the stuff to produce more milk. Breastfeeding for me was very painful as my nipples were often sore." Emotionally, this was very stressful. "I could not get to do anything. There was a constant demand for my attention. I could not brush my teeth. I felt like I could not do anything for myself," she says. Despite support from her husband she was very stressed out. Describing one of the most stressful occasions that she had with her bundle of joy Vanessa says, "I remember one night waking up and feeding her and trying to hush her back to sleep and that did not work. I just got up and fling down the chair I was sitting on. Fling down the night table with the telephone and the lamp fell. I flung down everything. She was in one hand and the other one was throwing everything else".Her husband then intervened and took the baby and told her to go to bed.
Vanessa was quite plainly having the baby blues or Postpartum depression.
According to Dr Franklyn LaHee, Consultant Psychiatrist at the University Health Centre, there are three forms of postpartum depression.

" One, is called the 'blues' (baby blues), which is in the first two weeks after giving birth," he said, while explaining that during this time the new mother can have sudden mood swings, such as feeling very happy and then feeling very sad. She may cry for no reason and can feel impatient, irritable, restless, anxious, lonely, and sad.He says that the baby blues do not always require treatment from a health care provider. Often, joining a support group of new moms or talking with other moms helps.
Vanessa, for example, did not get any medical treatment for depression, but she found that getting a lot of rest helped her to pull out of the depression.

The second form of postpartum depression can happen a few days or even months after childbirth, La Hee says. Postpartum depression can happen after the birth of any child, not just the first child. A woman he says can have feelings similar to the baby blues - sadness, despair, anxiety, irritability - but she feels them much more strongly than she would with the baby blues. Postpartum depression often keeps a woman from doing the things she needs to do every day. He says that when a woman's ability to function is affected, this is a sure sign that she needs to see her health care provider right away. If a woman does not get treatment for postpartum depression, symptoms can get worse and last for as long as a year.

The third form, he says, is the postpartum psycho, which he says is a very serious mental illness that can affect new mothers. This illness can happen quickly, often within the first three months after childbirth. Women can lose touch with reality, often having auditory hallucinations (hearing things that aren't actually happening, like a person talking) and delusions (seeing things differently from what they are). Visual hallucinations (seeing things that aren't there) are less common. Other symptoms include insomnia (not being able to sleep), feeling agitated (unsettled) and angry, and strange feelings and behaviours. Women who have postpartum psychosis need treatment right away and almost always need medication.

See Part two next week.

Victoria Rose is a freelance writer.

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