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According to the American Medical Association,
postpartum depression can only be classified as
such if it occurs between one and 12 months after
the delivery of your baby. Great. Good to know, right?
Well, what is it called when those feelings that are more than baby blues rear
their nasty little heads at 14 or 15 months postpartum?
It simply doesn’t stand to reason that we make it through that first year relatively unscathed only to be hit hard after our babe’s first piece of birthday cake. But that’s exactly when things can break down for new moms—especially if breast-feeding has recently subsided and a menstrual cycle has resumed.
The panic of year one has waned; everyone has made it through and there are deep breaths all around. Deep breaths that, for mom, can summon months and months of pent-up fear, frustration and anxiety: a sobering recipe for a unique flavor of depression.
Veronica D. of Papillion, Neb., knows this strange tale all too well. Her depression began creeping in at around 10 months after the birth of her son, but it wasn’t full-blown until he was 14 months old. By then, she says, “I didn’t know if I was going just plain crazy or if there was some sort of relationship between my mental state and the birth of my son. So much time had passed that I initially brushed the whole thing off [as] ‘hysteria’ and being just flat-out overwhelmed.”
She was fortunate to have an OB who could see that bending the 12-month mark for PPD made sense in her case. And she was treated appropriately. She says: “The right meds changed my life! I was also working with an amazing therapist to discuss the issues specific to my experience as a mother that were causing my depression. I was so relieved to be taken seriously.”
Fortunately, a growing circle of mental health service providers are broadening the definition of postpartum depression to include any woman who is pregnant, has miscarried, has had an abortion, has had an interrupted pregnancy or has recently weaned a child from breast-feeding, regardless of how many previously non-complicated pregnancies and/or postpartum adjustments she has had.
A practitioner at a support group called Depression After Delivery says that “…with early intervention and good medical/psychiatric intervention, these illnesses are treatable and prognosis is excellent.” Women should seek help from someone specializing in these disorders, the practitioner recommends.
It's commonly believed that most women have never experienced anything like this at any other time in their lives, and therefore have no real framework for dealing with it, particularly when they are “out of range” for a typical PPD diagnosis. In fact, this may be the last thing a woman thinks is going on.
According to Depression After Delivery: “There are multiple causes for mood and anxiety disorders [postpartum]: hormonal imbalance, alteration in brain chemistry, stress, isolation etc.…Currently, hormones are receiving attention in the search for causes of pregnancy and postpartum mood and anxiety disorders.”
While there is no clinical definition of “late-onset PPD” as of yet, there is a rising tide of its recognition, and suffering moms are beginning to ride the wave to relief.
For more on PPD, check out our article "Blues Clues".
For more information, go to Postpartum Support International.
Read our profile of Postpartum Support International here.
—Michele OBrien
Michele OBrien is the mother of two rockin' little girls and one boy, and wife to one hip husband. She's currently a nurse and a midwife, a former Bloomberg TV exec and usually pretty exhausted.
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