Postpartum Depression - When Newborns Fail to Thrive

The majority of persons view postpartum depression as a problem that affects just the new mother. This, however, is not true. The whole family experiences relationship changes that affect family dynamics considerably. Depressed moms who fail to get help frequently put their babies at risk for serious or deadly setbacks in growth and development.

The medical name for this complicated problem is nonorganic failure to thrive. Nonorganic means that no physical cause for the baby's delays exists. Because of the mother's postpartum depression, she frequently stops meeting the baby's nutritional and psychological requirements. Although the baby may cry in hunger at first, he or she often loses interest and stops interacting with other people. This condition may result in nutritional problems, starvation, and even death.

Doctors use growth charts to track a child's physical growth with respect to height, weight, and head size. If the baby is healthy at birth, his or her size will be within the normal range on these charts. If the baby begins to have serious growth delays, this will appear when comparing his or her development against normal ranges. If an infant's progress is lower than the fifth percentile, physicians get seriously concerned.

Other symptoms may become evident before an infant's growth problems reach this crisis stage. The majority of babies who develop at a normal rate are interested in their surroundings. In contrast, babies who fail to thrive show little or no interest in their environment. These babies typically do not make sounds or talk; they have quit attempting to relate with their caregivers.

How serious is this condition? If untreated, the baby may starve to death. Even if the baby grows enough to remain alive, his or her muscles, lungs, and mind do develop enough. Additionally, even if they are treated, these children never "catch up" completely. They frequently acquire social issues or eating disorders, even after they begin to have their needs met.

Infants diagnosed with failure to thrive often become critically sick from starvation. They are often hospitalized for weeks or months. In some cases, they become so weakened that feeding from a bottle is too tiring. They receive feedings through a tube inserted in their stomachs, or even in a vein to receive food!

The most tragic aspect of this condition is that it can be easily prevented. If moms with postpartum depression recognize their problem at its onset, they can get help and never expose their helpless infants to these horrific dangers. In fact, research has shown that nine-tenths of those mothers who suffer from depression and seek help will find healing!

A variety of approaches is used to treat postpartum depression. Many physicians prescribe medicines like antidepressants. These medications are expensive. They should also be avoided in nursing mothers. Moreover, antidepressants sometimes cause thoughts of suicide; these medicines must be prescribed with great care.

Frequently, physicians recommend counseling instead of or along with medicines. Psychotherapy, however, is costly. In addition, it can be time-consuming, and several weeks may pass before this treatment begins to help. Regrettably, depending on the severity of the woman's depression, this may be too long for her baby. If the baby begins to experience delayed growth, extra therapies may be needed.

Luckily, other non-medicinal treatment approaches are available. Two revolutionary, beneficial approaches that typically offer positive outcomes much more quickly than counseling, and are much less dangerous than medicine, are Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP and hypnosis for depression. These two approaches typically start to help after even a single session. Moreover, they cost much less than alternative approaches.

Moms who think they might have postpartum depression must seek help immediately so that their babies do not develop dangerous growth problems. The severity of the effects on the baby demands that any approach work quickly, and have a high rate of effectiveness. NLP and hypnosis for depression cost little, begin to work almost immediately, and are extremely effective. This makes these two treatments perfect for helping women with postpartum depression.

Summary: Postpartum depression is depression that begins after the birth of a child. These new mothers cannot provide their babies the attention they must have to survive and grow. This causes failure to thrive, a serious, possibly fatal condition, which hurts the infant. Mothers who suspect that they have postpartum depression need to get help as soon as possible. Hypnotherapy and NLP for depression cost little and have demonstrated amazing effectiveness.

Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in depression and stress related symptoms as an NGH certified hypnotist. During his 31-year career he's helped thousands of clients. He offers CDs for hypnosis anxiety depression. Visit his Neuro-VISION hypnotherapy site for the hypnosis article repository, or watch his free video hypnosis collection.

- Alan Densky

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