Newsletter
Help us make a difference
Until the birth of her daughter, my sister-in-law was a cheerful, sociable, very balanced, and active person. She loved children and was overjoyed when she became pregnant. In the spring of 2018, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. When her daughter was a few weeks old, she called me in tears and told me she was not doing well. I so desperately wanted to help her, to hug her and be there for her. However, more than 850 km separate our places of residence, so at that time we could only communicate by phone.
In her case, various factors led to postpartum depression, as neither the pregnancy nor the birth had been without complications. Moreover, after the birth she was almost entirely on her own, as she lived far away from nearly all close relatives, except for her husband and close friends. There were also several reasons why the depression was not immediately recognized. It was her first pregnancy, so she could not properly interpret her mood or her sleep disturbances. Having just become a mother, it was natural that both the nights and the days were very exhausting and draining, and that the adjustment led to extreme fatigue. When she realized that her condition was no longer “normal,” she was not taken seriously by her gynecologist or by other services she turned to for help.
