Postpartum Depression Case Studies

For the purpose of this paper I interviewed a family friend, a female who is currently 45 years old. She has had some serious experiences with postpartum depression that impacted not only her life but also the life of her son. When she was 35, she got pregnant. It was a big event because she and her husband had been trying to get pregnant over the previous decade without success. She described how extremely happy she was during her pregnancy and how she anticipated the birth of her son and their future together. Her pregnancy was healthy and uneventful. However, what happened after his birth profoundly changed not only her life and her marriage but also the life of her son. Everything was normal right after her son was born, but several days …show more content…
The study raised some serious concerns about postpartum depression’s effects as it had profound negative effects on the mother and even worse effect on the children. Postpartum depression has also been associated with a rise in suicidal tendencies and in attempts to harm the child. The study investigated nearly 300 women with postpartum depression and compared them to healthy controls. Not only did it find that postpartum depression is common and can be traced to things like the mother’s dissatisfaction with her partner, an unsupportive partner, and the lack of additional support (all of which my interviewee experienced), but it also found that mothers who had avoidant attachment themselves tended to experience postpartum depression more than those who did not. This once again shows how avoidant attachment can perpetuate itself …show more content…
They found that factors such as the gender of an infant (male), the mother 's avoidant attachment, and the severity of her postpartum depression symptoms were associated with very ineffective parenting self-efficacy. Remarkably, this also describes my interviewee. The study also demonstrated that low parenting self-efficacy could be very effectively improved by brief but very focused and intensive intervention to help mothers cope better and handle their symptoms better. Sadly, my interviewee was not given such interventions that could have helped. This study also shows that she had major risk factors for developing low parenting self-efficacy levels, and also illustrates how avoidant attachment can be passed across