The best ways to pull yourself out of maternity depression. Depression while on maternity leave: what to do

The birth of a child is a great happiness, a great joy. Only this joy disappears somewhere after six months or a year. Nothing makes a young mother happy. Irritability appears and develops chronic fatigue. Playing with your baby is not fun. My husband's attention is tiring. Where does all this come from? How to avoid depression? How not to go crazy while on maternity leave?

Why does depression occur?

You wake up in the morning, but you don’t want to get up. The mood is already bad. Not only did you not get enough sleep, but at night you kept jumping up to the baby. So you will have to spin around like a squirrel in a wheel all day. Poop-poop-walking-cleaning-cooking-washing. And again porridge. And so on endlessly. Endless whirlwind! How to stay calm and balanced here! You lash out at your child, at your husband...

Am I really bad mom and wife?! What's happened?! How to deal with all this?!

First you need to calm down. And accept your new state as a given. Maternity depression just set in. There is no need to dig inside and engage in self-flagellation. You are doing an excellent job with your responsibilities. You are an ideal mother and a wonderful wife. Now is such a period. Heavy. It's temporary. Any depression can be overcome.

Why does maternity depression occur?

1. Monotony.

This is one of the main reasons. Every day the same thing. Getting up - porridge - potty - changing clothes - walk - soup - sleep room - whims - dinner - bathing - sleep room again. If you're lucky, no whims. Nothing changes! There is no end!

2. Lack of intellectual activity.

Washing butts and cooking porridge is far from intellectual work. The personality begins to go on strike due to the lack of opportunities for creative and mental self-realization.

3. No one to talk to.

How not to go crazy while on maternity leave?

How to prevent depressive state? And if depression is already bothering you, how to cope with it? Remember the reasons and neutralize them:

1. Make a break from monotony. Change your routine. Disturb the usual course of events. There are plenty of ways:

find a hobby and devote attention to it at least an hour a day (reading books, cross-stitching, knitting toys, creating blogs, etc., etc.);
rest more (nothing bad will happen if you don’t iron the clothes while the baby is sleeping, but sleep with him, just lie down and meditate);
take care of yourself (you can devote half an hour a day to yourself for your loved one; make masks for your face and hands, lie in a fragrant bath);
leave home for two hours a week without children (to a cafe with your husband, shopping, shaping; where you can relax your soul and body; and at this time your grandmother, aunt, dad, in the end, can sit with the children) .

Let’s immediately warn against indignant cries that grandmothers are far away and dads don’t need anything. Dear mothers! You yourself taught dads to do nothing. We were afraid that the man would not be able to cope with your baby. Everything will be mixed up. Well, the man didn’t really insist. It's easier for him that way.

Load your men with caring for the child. This is the fruit of his labors. Let him walk with it. Stays at home. Without you. And even if he mutters under his breath and shows displeasure, don’t pay attention. Smile, kiss – and go to a restaurant with a friend. A cheerful wife is much better than one who is always swearing and dissatisfied.

2. Exercise your brain. Give him food.

Maternity leave is a great time to improve your professional level, learning foreign languages, mastering new specialty. Take English lessons via Skype, sign up for design or accounting courses, study makeup. Anything! If only you were interested.

In addition, today there are many opportunities to study without leaving home. Educational sites, Skype, educational literature, distance courses.

3. Look for interlocutors and like-minded people.

Where to look? On walks and playgrounds, on forums and thematic sites. Having trouble finding friends? Create a club yourself for people who share your views. Among seven billion people there will definitely be such people.

Turn every day into a small holiday. Buy yourself a new dress, a beautiful hairpin, an elegant notebook, an unusual pen, a funny sponge for washing dishes. Celebration is possible in everyday life. Everything depends on you. For example, on Friday evening, wear Evening Dress and meet your husband for a festive dinner with candles. Occasion? End working week. On Wednesday, decorate your house with balloons (just imagine how happy your little one will be!). Occasion? The child himself asked to use the potty. First! You'll find a reason if you want.

And remember: you cannot allow yourself to become sour. maternity leave. You are a woman. Love yourself, pamper yourself. Will bring the child more benefit a half-hour game with a happy mother, rather than a two-hour tortured lesson with an irritated aunt.

Just yesterday you were so cheerful and cheerful, today, sitting on maternity leave to care for a child, you feel overwhelmed and unhappy? This definitely needs to be corrected and not let go of letting depression control you. How to do it? Specific descriptive situations will help you find your way out.

You've probably heard the term burnout. This means that a person’s internal supply of energy and strength is depleted over time if it is not replenished. The reason for this may include nervous tension. If we talk about a mother on maternity leave, then the causes of burnout will be lack of sleep, malnutrition, and fear for the baby. They may well provoke such burnout. Agree that no one will remove you from the position of mother, which means that now you work 24 hours and you have the most demanding boss - your child. Tell me honestly, do you put off eating to please your baby? Do you also dream about relaxation and an extra 15 minutes in the bathroom? Are you always on guard and ready to act? Keep in mind that at this pace you with confident steps you are heading towards the process of burnout.

I hope that the examples below will be useful to you, as they say: “Forewarned is forearmed.”

State of chronic irritability

If you don’t have the opportunity to sometimes switch from your immediate responsibilities of caring for the baby, household chores - in a word, you don’t have assistants, then after a while you begin to understand that just a little more will boil and explode. You are annoyed by everything that happens around you: any misdeed of a child, or inattention of a husband can serve as a reason for a quarrel. You scream, you get offended, and then you cry because you realize that you are wrong, and you apologize to your loved ones for the breakdown. But a little time passes, and a quarrel may arise again... It’s just some kind of vicious circle. But, fortunately, it is quite possible to break it!

In order not to throw incomprehensible hysterics, first accept the fact that you are not infinite, and you need to rest. And for this you need to learn to make time for yourself personally. Going to a salon for a haircut, coloring, manicure, massage and other feminine pleasures is a great opportunity to pamper yourself and get out into the world for a change of scenery. Maybe it will just be meeting a friend in a cafe or buying something for yourself. It doesn’t matter what you do – the main thing is to do it for yourself! And then, when you have a little rest, think about whether you are planning your day correctly, and whether you are giving yourself too much work? Maybe it's time to stop rushing? Believe me, by doing several things at the same time, you are not saving time, you are simply irrationally wearing yourself out! Please pay attention to this.

Mom is in a state of lack of internal strength

We will talk about the insufficiency of your internal resources, thanks to which you enjoy every day, charge those around you with your enthusiasm, good mood and enjoy caring for the baby.

Whatever calm child, but it grows and requires attention: first it’s teeth, tummy, then crawling, first steps, and so on. Sleepless nights, maximum attention and anxiety for the health of the baby exhaust you, fatigue accumulates, and because of it you become inattentive, even absent-minded in something. And now you begin to get bruises and bumps, knocking your toes on furniture corners, bruising your fingers, crumbling vegetables, you begin to forget important things that you planned the day before. Attention becomes less sharp, and memory becomes “leaky.” By completely unconsciously saving your strength, you infringe on the child in your tenderness, you smile less often, and the people around you also lack your attention. Due to this lack of internal reserve, you may soon become more withdrawn. Sad prospect, isn't it? How to fix everything?

A new hobby, a kind of emotional shake-up, will help. It's about about a new hobby (as an option). This could be handicrafts (knitting, embroidery, scrapbooking, modeling, making jewelry, etc.), studying foreign language(you don’t even need to take courses for this - everything can be found on the Internet), you can become an online consultant on a thematic forum. Choosing an activity to your liking is a matter of your talents and desires. And then you won’t even notice how it appears free time in a seemingly completely “crowded” schedule for a new hobby. And who knows, maybe after a while your hobby will become your profession. Believe in yourself, in your strengths - even on maternity leave, you can grow professionally and, doing what you love, get rid of psychological discomfort.

If you're feeling low

Excessive nervous tension is fraught not only with breakdowns and scandals, but also with psychosomatic problems that affect health. It could also be problems with blood pressure, disruption of work gastrointestinal tract, headaches, sexual desire for your husband may decrease, and so on. It’s not for nothing that they say that all diseases are caused by nerves.
And how can you help your nervous system? You know, here in in this case You can’t do it without the help of specialists. It’s one thing to get enough sleep and calm down, but it’s another thing when malfunctions in the body’s functioning appear. Don’t put off visiting the doctor: the sooner you start therapy, the faster you will return to your normal state.

Initiative and enthusiasm beyond measure are punishable

When a child is born, a young mother, being in a state of emotional upsurge, tries not to be separated from the baby for a second, postponing until later and “somehow later” things that are important to her, such as eating, good rest, dream. Such refusal or even renunciation will not lead to anything good. Remember, your internal strength is limited, and it won’t be more than it is if you don’t replenish it. It's like constantly drawing from a source and not giving it the opportunity to recover. Sooner or later you will see the bottom. For a month, three, maybe six months, maybe a year you will last non-stop, carrying everything on yourself, and then? But the family members around you are already, to put it mildly, accustomed to the fact that you do everything yourself, and your sudden impulse to refuse this may not affect the family in the best way. The child will be capricious without you while you are resting - he is used to always being with you. And the husband will not want to sit with the baby - he even, thanks to your excessive care, does not know which side to approach him and where in the house there are diaper toys. This is how your plan to restore internal strength can fail before it even begins to be implemented, and the body’s resources, meanwhile, melt and melt.

So what should I do? What should I do? There is an exit. If suddenly your situation is similar to the one described above, don’t wait for an emotional breakdown, act. Start with 30 minutes a day just for yourself. Let it be a cup of coffee or tea, but you have the right to drink it in absolute peace, listening to your favorite music or reading a book. There is such an old, bearded joke, the key phrase of which is the final chord of the mother: “Quiet, sha, I am making you a happy mother!” So, start small, gradually building up these 30 minutes to several hours a day, when you can be your own boss. And don’t immediately say that this is unrealistic. The main thing is to want, set a goal and work to achieve it!

And finally

Sitting at home, on maternity leave, very often young mothers “let themselves go,” plunging headlong into everyday life and completely forgetting about themselves, once loved. Monotonous everyday life with a small child and a list homework not very conducive to growth and development. No, of course, the little one’s daily small victories and successes make him happy, you are happy to be proud of them and tell all your friends and relatives about it. Someone will rejoice with you, someone will just smile, and someone will not be interested. But life doesn’t stop there, does it?

Children are wonderful, and when they appear in the family, you realize that you have switched to new level of its development. You and your spouse have become parents. And living with the interests and concerns of little ones, sharing everything with them is wonderful, but life is not limited solely to bottles, rattles and pots, and cleaning. Don’t be afraid to be interested in something else besides household chores; periodically give yourself emotional and psychological relief and shake-ups. Remember: your family needs you as a happy mother and wife!

Depression while on maternity leave is a fairly common phenomenon. There is no need to think that it appears temporarily. Prolonged stress can be dangerous to a woman's health. Let's look at why depression develops during maternity leave, how it manifests itself and how to avoid it.

Why is depression dangerous?

Each of us has heard about emotional burnout. A person's internal reserve of strength is not unlimited. A person suffers from a depressed mood, his sleep is disturbed, he is overcome by suspiciousness, shyness, and indecisiveness. All these are signs of depression, which often develops in women on maternity leave. If left untreated, this condition can become uncontrollable and cause harm.

Research shows that depression can cause many diseases:

First of all, depression increases the risk of developing heart attack. Long-term depressed mood is a path to the development of cardiovascular pathologies.
In depression, nutrition is disrupted: a person is prone to drinking large quantity sweets and products with high content carbohydrates. And this is the reason for the development diabetes mellitus. Research shows that diabetes and depression are related diseases.
People suffering from depression are prone to obesity.
Prolonged depressed mood reduces a person's mental abilities.
Long-term untreated depression is the cause of the development of chronic pain. And often physiological reasons Such pain cannot be identified during a medical examination. Treatment chronic pain When you are in a depressed mood, it becomes much more difficult.
People with depression experience poorer performance immune system. As a result, they suffer from infectious diseases more often than others.
The worst thing is that depression is the cause of cancer.

Causes

Even if a child is calm, this does not mean that he does not require attention. Result - sleepless nights, constant pressure attention and anxiety for the health of the little creature. Strength gradually decreases, fatigue accumulates. Because of this, the mother becomes inattentive, tired, and absent-minded.

Postpartum sadness and despondency develop for the following reasons:

Extreme fatigue. It is most pronounced in the first time after childbirth. It is typical that young mothers feel increased irritability and even alienation.
Monotonous life. The first time after giving birth, the woman is near the baby, and this space does not change for her. There is no time left for communication, much less entertainment. If every day is similar to each other and consists of a cycle of endlessly repeating events, then sooner or later emotional exhaustion occurs.
Changing appearance, a woman’s dissatisfaction with her appearance. This is due to the fact that after childbirth a woman’s figure changes. And this, in turn, is the reason increased irritability, because efforts to be beautiful become futile.
Women who have had their first birth develop the so-called bad mother syndrome. They unreasonably think that they can’t do anything and can’t cope with the baby. In addition, all words and advice from adults are perceived as teachings, which only aggravates the situation.
Lack of opportunity for self-realization and self-affirmation.
Lack of time to rest. A woman cannot be alone for at least half an hour, buy something, cook, watch TV, etc. Naturally, sooner or later her nerves begin to fray.
Limited or lack of communication. It often happens that a young mother has to communicate in a “childish” language. But a natural need is to communicate with people. As a result, a woman is highly likely to have a nervous breakdown.

Symptoms

You can suspect depression based on the following signs:

irritability (young mothers begin to get irritated by every little thing);
increased fatigue;
drowsiness during the day, sleep disturbance at night;
a feeling of weakness that does not go away even after rest;
positive emotions cease to be a source of former joy;
the emergence of feelings of guilt, self-deficiency;
the appearance of a feeling of lack of time (the woman feels that she does not have the strength to perform ordinary duties);
emotional background decreases;
severe emotional exhaustion when nothing makes a woman happy;
she is overcome by thoughts of how to escape from home;
communication with her husband also does not bring any pleasure, which ultimately worsens the situation in the family.

Don't lose your health

The period of childcare is very stressful for a woman. And you don’t need to think that within 3 years the young mother will take a break from work. Quite the opposite: caring for a child is that very job, and it is very stressful and difficult.

How to get out of depression and how to prevent the development of chronic fatigue?

These tips will help new mothers:

Condition wellness and vigor - this is a dream during the day. You should try to sleep during the day when you put your baby to bed. This best vacation for a tired body.
Before going to bed, you can take a relaxing bath. It will remove negative emotions and set you up for night rest. This will make your sleep much stronger. It is recommended to add a little to the water sea salt or natural essential oils.
You definitely need to play sports. Regular and easy exercise will improve your tone and drive away depression. You definitely need to set aside time to study fresh air: They make you feel physically and emotionally uplifted.
Reading is the best way to occupy yourself during leisure time.
Depression while on maternity leave will disappear if you regularly communicate with those you care about. Spend at least a little time communicating and see how your mood improves.
Some child care responsibilities can be redistributed to a husband or grandmother. A young mother should devote at least an hour a day to rest. You don’t have to look up to other mothers, how they are busy raising and caring for a child all day long, because your health is completely different.
Under no circumstances should you resort to drinking alcohol. It is not an antidepressant, and in most cases it only worsens the problem.
You should always set yourself realistic and achievable goals. This way you won't feel like you can't handle anything.
You need to be able to determine for yourself the so-called crisis point, after which you need to quit some things and relax. Otherwise, emotional exhaustion is inevitable.

You need to accept the fact that it is necessary to rest, no matter how busy your daily schedule may be. After all, anyone, even the most strong body not iron. You need to find time for the most common feminine pleasures: going to nail salon or a hairdresser, for a massage, etc. Even a meeting in a cafe with girlfriends can brighten up the endless bustle.

Activities Options

Maternity leave is not only time to care for a child. If a woman uses the time she has rationally, she will be able to use it for self-development, self-improvement and other useful things. Naturally, there will be no room for despondency on such a vacation.

Here are the most suitable methods keep yourself busy with useful and enjoyable things:

Easy and stress-free remote work. You can perform part of your work responsibilities remotely, that is, from home. This is also good way earn some money.
You can also think about a pleasant activity in your free time. This is sewing, knitting, etc. Start your own blog and start filling it out: you had no idea how interesting it is. The only thing that needs to be taken into account for this is the child’s daily routine. It is recommended to adapt specifically to its mode.
Try to raise intellectual level. Maternity leave is not a hindrance to this. Moreover, the time has come to improve some of your knowledge and learn a foreign language.
Why not take a driving course while on maternity leave? Some women use this. Having mastered the art of manicure, nail extensions, etc., you can also earn some good money.
Even an ordinary trip to the store can be turned into a small celebration. To do this, you just need to take a closer look at the assortment of goods and buy something nice. Even a small purchase can lift your spirits. And by purchasing something to improve your home, you can update it, which also helps fight depression.
Bright clothes can drive away melancholy and improve your mood. It’s even better if your family wears cheerful clothes: this way you can organize a holiday for everyone.
There is no need to be shy about accepting someone's help. Moreover, it is necessary to forgive long-standing grievances and accept life as it is.
Locking yourself in is the worst thing that can happen. Try to discuss pressing issues with friends and family: this will make life brighter and more diverse.

Treatment

IN in some cases it is necessary to resort to drug treatment depression during maternity leave.

It is shown only in extreme cases when other methods of influence do not help. Self-medication with antidepressants is under no circumstances allowed.

Antidepressants are enough potent drugs. Most of them are used only under strict supervision, since even a slight excess of the dosage contributes to the occurrence of side effects.

Good and at the same time effective method get rid of depression - aromatherapy. Essential oils can be used in a bath. Once in the body, they promote recovery peace of mind, uplifting mood. It is best to have a doctor select essential oils: self-treatment oils can be harmful in some cases. All oils should be used only natural: from artificial substitutes oils are of little use. Works best on the body essential oils lavender, lemon balm, rosemary, orange.

So, depression during childcare is completely preventable and treatable. However, it is still better not to bring yourself to such a state.

Life is full of stresses that we can go through in a controlled manner: they lead to personal development. We are looking for how to get out of a challenging situation, and our efforts lead to results. The chain “challenge - reaction - result” is an integral part of development. According to physiologist Dmitry Zhukov, uncontrolled stress is destructive for a person, which has three signs: it cannot be predicted, it cannot be avoided, and it cannot be adapted to. In other words, the source of stress does not depend on you in any way and you cannot influence it or make it stop.

The first child can create a situation of uncontrollable stress for the mother. She has almost no effect on his scream. Colic, teething and tantrums of 2-3 years of age are practically impossible to calm and control. When he will wake up and scream again is unknown and also uncontrollable.

We get another chain: challenge - reaction - lack of an adequate and lasting result - again challenge - reaction - again lack of result. This may lead to a reluctance to be responsive (i.e., soothe the child). In scientific language, this state is called “learned helplessness.” Its signs are apathy, anhedonia (lack of desire to enjoy existing pleasures), reluctance to improve one’s condition, decreased cognitive abilities, anxiety and fear.

Many recognize themselves by imagining the following picture: you really want to sleep, but you can’t sleep from anxiety that the baby will wake up soon anyway, and again... Or you are sitting on the sofa and feel that you are not even able to get up and water the flowers, because “Why ? Every day it’s the same.”

How to “cure” uncontrollable stress

The mother’s body strives to avoid depression and protects itself from uncontrollable stress. He exhibits “displaced activity” - he invents actions that, in principle, do not affect the cause of stress, but reduce the mother’s anxiety. For example, you can fanatically wash the floor or wipe the shelves every day. It takes a very long time to iron clothes until they are sterile. Pile on food, especially sweets. You can invent some strange rituals, in the expediency of which you fervently believe, although in a year you will laugh at it. But in a situation of uncontrollable stress, you needed it.

What kind of displaced activity do you show? Is she neurotic? If you are not satisfied with it, think about what useful distracting activity you can replace it with. When I caught myself “rubbing the floors”, I knew in my head that it was useless, but I couldn’t help myself... The problem went away when I started writing a book. Cleanliness of the floors again stopped worrying me more than once a week.

Yes, rats, fish, and dogs experience uncontrollable stress, and they also have “displaced activity.” For example, if a tethered rat is randomly shocked and cannot control the shocks, it will show symptoms of depression. However, if at this moment the rat is allowed to run around the cage or chew a stick, there will be no symptoms of depression. They will also not be there if there is an opportunity to fight with relatives in the cage. In a situation of uncontrolled stress, tension and aggression towards others (for example, husband, mother-in-law) will increase in a person. But you and I don’t want to be like rats and can consciously choose a different “displaced activity.”

The most reliable way for a person to overcome uncontrollable stress is to turn it into controllable one. To do this, you need to consistently influence each of the three signs of nervous system. Your task is to remove at least one.

“Avoid”: leaving someone with the child for a while. If this is not possible, we act on “Predict” - create a daily routine for yourself and the child and clear rituals for eating, walking and sleeping. This makes the child's reactions more predictable. “Adapt”: improve maternal skills and replenish the arsenal of ways to calm the child. For example, I had insomnia from anxiety that the child would wake up soon. Then I took him to my bed. When he started tossing and turning, even before he screamed, she put a tit in his mouth. I won myself a good one night sleep. This is an example of influencing the “adapt” trait.

I am sure that this example will seem banal to many. Alas: if a woman, due to her youth, lack of education, lack of models of maternal behavior, does not know how to calm a child, she will also struggle with uncontrollable stress, but in a different way. Her aggression may be directed against the child. A sign of “fitting in” is drinking alcohol. The sign of “avoid” is literally throwing the child away. But teach a woman to cope safely with uncontrollable stress and we get healthy family. This is why maternal support groups are needed.

Exercise: write down exactly what child’s behavior and when it acts on you as uncontrollable stress. Write everything possible options safe actions for each of the three signs of uncontrollable stress in your case.

To maintain adequate self-esteem during periods of uncontrollable stress, it is important to ensure that you perform some kind of ritual every day. Example: dinner for the husband must be prepared, and the floors must be washed.

My child regularly prevented me from doing household chores, and this exacerbated my feelings of inadequacy as a housewife. I felt much better when I was able to guarantee a clean home. To do this, I had to put my rebel in a sling on her back, where she often fell asleep peacefully while washing the floor. I felt like I had “defeated” her and taken back control of my own life.

Nature is programmed that sooner or later almost every woman begins to want a child. She makes plans and dreams of how she will spend her maternity leave. However, after giving birth, especially if the child is the first, the woman faces unforeseen difficulties (lack of sleep, the baby’s whims, the inability to relax and take time to care for herself). All this contributes to the development of symptoms in women postpartum depression. The first months after the birth of a baby are a time when the strength of relationships in a young family is often tested.

Depression during maternity leave occurs especially often in sensitive and emotional women. They are naturally sociable and open-minded. Construction emotional connections with other people is a vital necessity for them.

It is not surprising that forced solitude and limited communication while a woman is “on maternity leave” causes her to experience a state of emotional deficiency, which she often feels as depression. People of this type have a huge emotional range and it is unnatural to limit it only to communication with their husband and child. As a result of the lack of realization of the emotional range, young mothers experience maternity depression: tearfulness appears, apathy sets in, and sometimes there are hysterics and panic attacks.

If a woman decides to have a child under pressure from her husband or driven by the need to realize her reproductive function up to 35-40 years old, but at the same time she has no need for motherhood, then it is likely that she will develop postpartum depression.

Factors contributing to depression

The following factors contribute to the appearance of depression:

Chronic fatigue. It is especially strong in the first four months after the birth of a child. At this time, the baby often suffers from gases caused by intestinal immaturity and is prone to bouts of evening crying. If, in addition, there are problems with lactation, then the woman does not know what to do and feels literally exhausted. Hence the tearfulness and despondency. In this case, we must remember that all this is a temporary phenomenon and in just a couple of months life will return to normal.
Monotony. If a mother on maternity leave needs communication, then you should not isolate yourself within four walls for a long time. Beginning with one month old You can walk with your child in almost any weather, and a little later you can visit friends and even go shopping.
Dissatisfaction with the figure. Often after giving birth, a woman’s appearance undergoes changes, which is very upsetting for the young mother. Especially if the husband directly expresses his complaints to her. This is not a reason to isolate yourself. Correction of diet and physical activity Over time, they will help return the body to its former shape and get rid of depression.
Lack of experience. Women who have given birth to their first child often feel that they cannot cope with parenting and are doing everything wrong. As a result, they develop a feeling of inferiority. In this case, it is better to read the relevant literature and listen to the advice of mothers with children.

How to cope

To prevent the onset of depression during parental leave, psychologists recommend adhering to certain recommendations.

If it is difficult for a woman to cope with raising a child on her own, she needs to talk frankly with her husband and determine what responsibilities he is ready to take on. The conversation should be without shouting and complaints. But you should be prudent: if your spouse needs to get up early for work, you shouldn’t burden him with caring for the child at night.

During periods when it seems that everything is not going as it should, in order not to fall into depression, it is important to remember that there are no ideal parents. It is impossible to always do everything to the maximum. Even though sometimes you won’t be able to look perfect or wash the floor once again before your husband returns from work, you shouldn’t make a problem out of it.

For women for whom self-realization is important, remote work or training will help them get out of depression. By devoting a certain period of daytime to these activities, a woman will be able to avoid degradation and make good use of her maternity leave.

Sometimes you can relax total control and let the baby run the house. And while the child is busy, you can quietly read or drink a cup of tea. Early development a child is good, but everything should be in moderation. Everyday activities take a mother a lot of time and often turn out to be tiring for the baby. Sometimes it’s enough just to draw a little, read a book or make some Easter cakes.

Helps to cope with the development of postpartum depression physical exercise and long walks. This will allow the child to be in the fresh air for a long time, and the mother to maintain good health. physical fitness and an even mood.

To take a break from homework, it is advisable to set aside a couple of hours a week to communicate with friends. At this time, you can visit a cafe, beauty salon or go shopping. If there is absolutely no one to replace a young mother during her vacation, it is advisable to hire a nanny. In this case, a woman can even combine child care with study or part-time work.

Therapy for depression

Drug treatment of women during lactation is not permissible. In case of emergency, the child is transferred to artificial feeding and only after that they prescribe potent drugs: antidepressants and tranquilizers. Typically the use of such strong drugs indicated only if before pregnancy the woman had any mental disorders or they appeared for the first time, but are clearly expressed and do not lend themselves to methods of psychocorrection.

Antidepressants show excellent therapeutic effect, but their use is possible only under the strict supervision of a doctor. Many of them have certain contraindications and side effects.

Aromatherapy is considered a gentle method. To do this, oils are added to the bath during bathing and used in an aroma lamp. The selection of oils should also be carried out by a doctor, since hypersensitivity they can cause harm. Oils of lavender, orange, lemon balm, and cedar have a good calming effect.