Postnatal emotions

Giving birth is such a major event and during the first days and weeks after the birth, your postnatal emotions are likely to be very changeable because of the abrupt drop in your hormone levels. It's difficult to predict just how you well feel about the birth of your baby - sometimes an elated, trouble-free pregnancy can be followed by a low-key postnatal period.

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  Your changing postnatal emotions

  The nature and severity of postnatal emotional problems and the length of time they last varies greatly from one woman to another, and from one pregnancy to another. A woman can be fine after the birth of one child, then have a rough time following the birth of the next one.
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  Postnatal depression

  About ten per cent of all mothers develop postnatal depression (PND). In many ways this is different and separate from the baby blues.
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  Miriam's casebook - The depressed mother

  Christine has three children: Thomas, aged four; Laura, aged two-and-a-half; and Oliver, four months. After the birth of her first baby, she had “baby blues”, although she recovered in a few days. After her second baby was born, she was tired and dejected for about two weeks. Three weeks after...
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