All you need to know about depression in pregnant women & bull; hello healthy

Pregnancy is supposed to be one of the happiest moments in a woman's life, but for many women, pregnancy is a time of confusion, fear, stress, and even depression.

Depression is a mood disorder that affects 1 in 4 women at one point in their life, so it's no surprise that it can strike pregnant women too.

Postpartum depression - depression that hits a mother after having a baby - or the baby blues may be much more familiar, but mood disorders during pregnancy are more common in pregnant women than previously thought.

Depression in pregnant women often goes undetected

Depression during pregnancy is often not diagnosed correctly because people think the symptoms are just another form of hormonal changes - which are normal during pregnancy. Because of this, health care providers may be less responsive to investigating the psychiatric condition of pregnant women, and a pregnant woman may feel embarrassed to discuss her condition. While 33 percent of pregnant women show symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders, only 20 percent of them seek help.

Inadequate treatment of depression in pregnant women will be dangerous for both the mother and the baby in the womb. Depression is a treatable and manageable clinical disease; However, it is important to seek help and support first.

What are the signs and symptoms of depression in pregnant women?

It may be difficult to diagnose depression during pregnancy because some depressive symptoms can overlap with classic pregnancy symptoms, such as changes in appetite, energy levels, concentration, or sleep patterns.

It's normal to worry about some changes in yourself for the sake of pregnancy safety, but if you have persistent symptoms of depression and / or anxiety disorder for two weeks or more, especially until you can't function normally, seek help immediately.

Signs and symptoms of depression during pregnancy, including:

• Get stuck in a depressive mood all the time
• Sadness that never ends
• Too much or little sleep
• Drastically losing interest in the things you used to enjoy
• Guilty feeling
• Withdrawing from the world around you, including family and close relatives
• A sense of worthlessness
• Lack of energy, prolonged lethargy
• Poor concentration, or difficulty making decisions
• Changes in appetite (too much or too little)
• Feeling hopeless
• Has no motivation
• Have memory problems
• Crying continuously
• Experiencing headaches, aches and pains, or indigestion that doesn't go away

And it may be followed by symptoms of other psychiatric disorders, including:

Generalized anxiety disorders:

• Excessive anxiety that is difficult to control
• Irritable and irritable
• Muscle aches / pains
• Feel restless
• Fatigue

Obsessive-Compulsive disorder:

• Repetitive and ongoing thoughts about death, suicide, or despair
• Tendency to perform repetitive actions or behaviors to alleviate these destructive thoughts

Panic attack:

• Repeated panic attacks
• A lingering fear of the chance of another panic attack

Your doctor can find out if your symptoms are caused by depression or something else.

What triggers depression in pregnant women?

Although the accurate incidence rate of depression in pregnant women in Indonesia is not certain, but reported by Healthline, depression in pregnant women, also known as antenatal depression, affects 10-15 percent of women in general. In the United States, quoted from the American Pregnancy, according to data from The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), about 14-23 percent of women struggle with some signs and symptoms of depression during pregnancy.

Women with the following risk factors may be prone to depression:

• Personal or family medical history of mood disorders, such as depression or anxiety disorders
• History from premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)
• Becoming a young mother (under 20 years of age)
• Lack of social support (from family and friends) owned
• Living alone
• Experiencing husband-wife relationship problems
• Divorced, widowed, or separated
• Have experienced several traumatic or stressful events in the past year
• Pregnancy complications
• Have a low financial income
• Have more than three children
• Have had a miscarriage
• History of domestic violence
• Drug abuse
• Anxiety or negative feelings about the pregnancy

Anyone can experience depression, but there is no single cause.

Women who experience depression during pregnancy are at greater risk of postpartum depression.

What will be the consequences for the baby if the mother becomes depressed during pregnancy?

Risks to the fetus of mothers who experience depression or anxiety during pregnancy, including low birth weight, preterm birth (before 37 weeks), low APGAR scores, and respiratory distress and restlessness. However, it does not rule out that depression that hit pregnant women will also pass to the fetus.

Reporting from Kompas, research in the journal JAMA Psychiatry shows that women who experience depression during pregnancy will reduce the increased risk of developing a disorder in their children as adults.

Rebecca M. Pearson, Ph.D, of the University of Bristol in the UK, and her research team used data from more than 4,500 patients and their children in a community study. Researchers concluded that children born to mothers who experienced depression during pregnancy were, on average, 1.5 times more likely to develop depression when they were 18 years old.

While the risk of genetic heredity could be one potential explanation, Pearson, reported from Healthline, said that the physiological consequences of depression experienced by the mother can enter the placenta and affect fetal brain development.

How to treat depression during pregnancy

These findings have important implications for the nature and timeliness of medical interventions to prevent depression from receding in children later in life. Treating the signs and symptoms of depression during pregnancy as soon as possible, regardless of the underlying cause, is the most effective step, according to the study.

Researchers are of the view that different factors may be involved in depression before and after pregnancy. In postpartum depression, environmental factors such as social support have a major effect on healing.

Treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy - a type of face-to-face talking therapy - have been shown to help pregnant women with depression without the risk of side effects that may arise from psychoactive drugs.

Health care professionals must be aware and alert to support women. Depression during pregnancy is as important as postpartum depression, and it must be treated as early as possible not only to prevent the depression from continuing after birth.