Overcoming Postpartum Psychosis
Giving birth is a major emotional, physical, and social stressor in a woman’s life. Postpartum psychosis is a rare mental health emergency that occurs in some women after childbirth. Symptoms, including hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, rapid changes in mood, confusion, and behavior changes, usually appear between two and six weeks after giving birth. It affects only 1 or 2 per 1,000 women and requires immediate hospitalization and treatment (Cleveland Clinic, 2022).
A lack of awareness about postpartum psychosis, combined with stigma about perinatal psychiatric disorders and the lack of appropriate treatment options, means that postpartum psychosis is often missed by obstetricians and psychiatrists alike, sometimes with tragic consequences.
Postpartum psychosis isn’t new—Hippocrates described the first case known in medical literature back in 400 B.C., a mother who experienced delusions, confusion, and insomnia within six days of a twin birth (Osborne LM., 2018). Postpartum psychosis can become dangerous and is certainly overwhelming; however, most women respond well to treatment and demonstrate fast recovery and remission (Raza SK, Raza S., 2023).
For Laura Dockrill, a respected English author and performance poet, overcoming postpartum psychosis offered valuable insight into the importance of accepting all emotions without judgment and being prepared for life’s “gray” days.
In 2018, after the traumatic birth of my son, Jet, I was hit, out of the blue, with a debilitating mental illness called postpartum psychosis (PP). I had never experienced mental illness before,........
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