How to manage post-partum depression

Brooke Shields wrote “Down Came the Rain” in 2006 about her experience with post-partum depression. She is talking about the experience again in a new documentary “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.” “I think that as a mother of a daughter, at the time, now two daughters, I owe it to them to tell the truth about something that is so frightening,” she told Kelly Clarkson recently. “So many people suffer. Untreated, [PPD] can be devastating.”

The Office of Women’s Health says that one in eight women experience PPD, and it can affect the mother’s emotional and physical health and an infant’s physical and cognitive development. One study in JAMA Open Network found that five to 18 years after delivery, women who experience PPD have double the risk of suicide compared to women who haven’t had PPD. Another study in The Lancet highlights the far-reaching impact of PPD on a newborn (behavioral and psychomotor problems), and the benefits to the mother (improved mood and feelings of closeness to the child) when she is treated with medication and therapy.

If you feel angry or moody, hopeless or worthless, are sleeping and eating more than usual, and withdraw from family and friends for more than two weeks after childbirth, call the doctor for a referral to a support group or individual therapy, and to obtain medication, including antidepressants or the recently approved oral PPD medication, zuranolone.

For more information on how to boost your mental and physical health after childbirth, check out the iherb.com blog, “6 Practical Fitness Tips for New Moms.”

Dr. Mike Roizen is the founder of www.longevityplaybook.com, and Dr. Mehmet Oz is global advisor to www. iherb.com, the world’s leading online health store. Roizen and Oz are chief wellness officer emeritus at Cleveland Clinic and professor emeritus at Columbia University, respectively. Together they have written 11 New York Times bestsellers (four No. 1’s).