GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Experts are reminding new moms to take care because perinatal mood disorder can happen during pregnancy and after childbirth.
“It impacts any woman who is pregnant and into the year after their baby is born or delivery,” Barbara Hawkins-Palmer, director of Healthy Kent at the Kent County Health Department, said.
Hawkins-Palmer said about one in five women can experience it, and research suggests that one in three Black or Indigenous women can experience it. One in 10 men can also experience perinatal mood disorder.
“It is something that is often missed. They think it is baby blues. You know, ‘I’m kind of tired, of course, or I’m feeling anxious about the baby sleeping.’ And what happens is these can be exaggerated almost to a point of not going out because you’re afraid to take the baby anywhere or you’re not letting anyone hold the baby because you have obsessions about something happening,” Hawkins-Palmer said.
Symptoms can range from mild to severe. In extreme cases, perinatal mood disorder can turn into psychosis.
“We do know that some women who have mental health challenges before getting pregnant will often see that happening in their pregnancy,” she said.
The symptoms might not show up right away, Hawkins-Palmer said. They can show up months after the baby is born. Mothers can also be impacted during one pregnancy or postpartum and not another.
That’s what happened with Ájené Robinson-Figuereo. She said after both deliveries, she felt euphoric. With her second pregnancy, she noticed she was getting anxious and irritable.
“It left after I had the baby, and then a week or two afterwards, I started getting anxious again to the point of just feeling tightness in my chest and just worried thoughts, racing thoughts, and intrusive thoughts,” Robinson-Figuereo, member of the Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders Coalition of the Healthy Kent Infant Health Action Team, said.
Robinson-Figuereo said seeking help made a difference for her.
“The best thing to know is that there is help. We can make this better for women and their families… there’s counseling, there’s medications, but there is help. Women and men don’t have to suffer through this,” Hawkins-Palmer said.