Postpartum depression is one problem new moms face after pregnancy. In this episode of The Lab, Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad talk with psychologist Jan Morris to get the facts on PPD. She explains the difference between postpartum depression and the baby blues in mothers. Learn what the symptoms are and if treatment with therapy or medications is helpful. Find out if dads experience PPD. Drop a comment on this video or visit the forum discussion on DadLabs.com and let us know if your family experiences with post partum depression. DadLabs Ep. 644 is brought to you by BabyBjorn.

Daddy Clay: In today's episode, we're talking about a serious subject that touches many many new families. Postpartum depression.
Daddy Brad: Today's episode is brought to you by BabyBjorn. Oexo-Tek certified, safe for your baby, BabyBjorn.
Daddy Clay: To get an understanding of what postpartum depression is, what its symptoms are and how it can be treated, we spoke with Dr. Janice Morris, a family therapist and specialist in postpartum depression.
Jan Morris: Before defining postpartum depression, first we'll talk about baby blues. Baby blues is by far the most common. It occurs in 50% to 80% of new mothers.
It happens about three days after birth and last for a couple of weeks. It's associated with that sudden drop in hormones after birth. And new moms will feel irritable, crying for no apparent reason, impatient. With enough rest and nutrition, and support of family and friends, it usually goes away by itself. After that is postpartum depression. If they don't get better. And onset is usually within 6 weeks but sometimes postpartum symptoms can appear four, six, twelve months postpartum. It occurs in one in 10 new moms so it's still pretty common. They key symptoms are sleep disturbance. Now a lot of new moms have sleep disturbance because the baby doesn't sleep well. But if she can't sleep when the baby is sleeping, that's one hallmark. Another is guilt. Moms with postpartum depression feel guilty about not doing a good enough job. They worry they're not bonding with the baby. They don't have the right feelings for the baby. So those are two hallmarks but in addition to that, you'll find that they're crying a lot. They might have difficulty getting out of bed. They're feeling a lot of self doubt, self criticism, maybe thoughts of "I'd just like to get in the car and drive away and never come back." Sometimes suicidal ideation, thoughts of harming the baby. Postpartum OCD occurs in about 2% of new moms and it's characterized by these intrusive thoughts that seem to come out of the blue. These ideas like "I could harm the baby. I could drop the baby. I could drop the baby off the balcony. I don't like being around sharp knives." A mom will say I don't think I would ever do this but I can't get this out of my head. And it's really upsetting. Does it mean I'm a bad person? Is this normal? One of the first kind of easy things that new dads can do to help is to see if he can sit down with his wife and strategize about how she could get three nights of uninterrupted sleep. Whatever way that could happen. Sleep is enormously restorative. And once she feels like she's a little more rested, she doesn't feel swamped in this really bad feelings. He could suggest that they go together to see a therapist who specializes in postpartum depression. That kind of therapy is a little different from conventional therapy so it helps to see somebody who knows something about it. And that therapist can help them decide if it would be appropriate and helpful to see a psychiatrist. There are psychiatrists who are trained specifically in the kinds of medications that are safe if a mom is breastfeeding. And these kind of things you can either try to tolerate the thoughts but if they're disturbing your sleep, and disturbing your quality of life, there are medications and there's therapy available.
Daddy Brad: Obviously this video is about postpartum depression in moms but a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that up to 10% of dads experience some kind of depression between the first trimester and then that first birthday.
Daddy Clay: Well that's not an entirely surprising statistic. But postpartum depression is a family issue. And I know this first hand because with our oldest child, he didn't get a copy of the birth plan evidently, because instead of being born naturally, he was born 10 weeks premature by Caesarian section. And the difference between those two things really caused my wife a tough time. She definitely suffered either baby blues or postpartum depression. Had a very rocky period after the baby was born. And really kind of put me in the front position taking care of the little guy in the NICU. So I understand it. I really wish that we'd had more resources available to us then and I hope that you will take advantage of the ones that are out there now.
Daddy Brad: If you have questions about postpartum depression or you have experiences to share, leave a comment on this video or go to DadLabs.com and join the conversation there.
Daddy Clay: We want to thank Dr. Jan Morris for lending her expertise to this video and also thank you very much to BabyBjorn for making this video possible. We'll see you next time here in The Lab.