Author: Sharon

Eating right

This point can never be underestimated as we truly are what we eat. A pregnant woman, especially in the delicate perinatal period should provide the right nutrition not just for her baby but also for herself. What we eat goes a long way in deciding our fitness, stability and especially overall health.

For most pregnant women, they believe that they have to eat for two. That is a wrong misconception and should not be indulged in at all. Yes, a pregnant woman would need to consume some extra calories, usually, about 300 more but a drastic increase is not required or even healthy. Unhealthy eating negatively affects the mood in the long term and should be avoided as much as possible.

Some foods are highly recommended to be taken perinatally or even while preparing for pregnancy and this should help with avoiding postpartum depression. Some of them include vitamin C, vitamin E, and beta carotene-rich foods e.g. Potato, Wheat germ, and Carrots respectively. Generally, a Mediterranean diet which consists of folate and vitamin b12 is essential.

Avoiding stress

This is an aspect that most of us are guilty of. Either as pregnant or non-pregnant women, we would normally find ourselves in tricky, stressful and sometimes uncontrollable situations and get overly nervous and stressed over it. Just because one is pregnant does not mean life would not stop taking its unexpected turns. The important thing is to realize the delicate situation you are in and prepare yourself to be strong. Also, other factors that could contribute to stress include;

Pregnancy discomforts: waking up most morning with nausea, vomiting, lower back pains, and general feelings of weakness, especially during the perinatal period would certainly stress out anyone. The best advice is to meet with your gynecologist so that you both can come with a plan that would make you more comfortable and feel better.

Changing hormones: usually this cannot be helped. During pregnancy, there is a surge of some particular hormones. These hormones are released to help with the maintenance of pregnancy. They usually perform their job and then some. It is not uncommon for a pregnant woman to have mood swings during the period of pregnancy. The best way to deal with this is to spend as much time as possible in a happy mood so the mood change is not able to affect you so much. Getting enough rest, spending more time with your partner, going for a walk and getting regular physical activity has also been observed to be helpful.

Expectations: both realistic and unrealistic expectation about the gestation period itself, childbirth and even postnatal are sure to keep you in a knot and unnecessarily worried. It is advised to keep your expectations in check and prepare yourself as adequately as possible, without overthinking and complicating things.

The ideal thing is to work out the best time to take your leave from your job, whether you have an employer or are self-employed. It would also be proper to ensure you can manage your job responsibilities adequately without being overly stressed.

Understandably, a lot of us are not in on getting help and assistance but this period is that time where you need as much as possible. From your partner to your relatives and even trusted acquaintances, taking their help and reducing your general workload would also decrease the amount of stress you expose yourself to and positively affect your mental health.

In essence, avoiding stress as much as possible before and during pregnancy would ensure you stay mentally fit even after pregnancy. Estrogen is normally produced during pregnancy and while it battles depression, it is not usually enough. The decrease in stress releases serotonin hormone, the feel-good hormone which is vital for normal mental health.

Avoiding alcohol during pregnancy

The most recent guideline by the UK Department of Health, states that no level of alcohol is safe to drink during pregnancy. The former guideline which stated that drinkers could consume not more than one or two units of alcohol as that level would minimize the risks to the growing baby has been changed.

Non-pregnant women are advised not to drink over 14 units in 3 days as the emphasis is now on preferably having alcohol free days. This is equivalent to a bottle and a half of wine drunk within a week. This new guideline suggests that it is better to not to save up units or spread drinking but instead drink all at a go.

Whatever the case may be, preparing for pregnancy and trying to achieve the best from it should involve adequate preparations. Even before pregnancy, we should preferably stop drinking alcohol altogether to give the best environment for the baby. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, alcohol consumption during pregnancy can be associated with psychosocial effects including depression.

Avoiding smoking

We might have already heard of the detrimental effect nicotine has on the growing baby. It can potentially damage the baby’s lungs and this baby is more likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). For the mother, however, the effect is more substantial as she is prone to more health complications, placing her firmly at risk of postpartum depression as health problems are one of its risk factors.

It is advised by the Centre for Disease Control to quit smoking before or during pregnancy to ensure the proper health of the child and mother.

Exercising enough

Being fit should not be forgotten during pregnancy. It is very easy to let yourself go but exercising appropriately provides a better state of mind. The best form of exercise during pregnancy is brisk walking, swimming or any low impact aerobic exercise. The benefits to these are remarkable; exercise increases serotonin level and as earlier mentioned, this hormone normalizes mental health as depression is linked to low levels of serotonin.

Healing yourself

This section does not just involve what we do with your body but also has to do with your mind. It is possible to have undergone a lot of trauma before or even during pregnancy and it is essential to allow yourself to heal. Applying all the above-mentioned tips but still having some residual emotional and physical baggage is not ideal in any sense. You need to be able to understand, accept and love your past if you plan to move on to the future. It is important to leave the past in the past with no regrets while focusing on the future and its endless opportunities. Without healing yourself, you expose yourself to the risk of depression which could increase with pregnancy and its surge of hormones, mood swings and potential mental imbalance.

In summary, postpartum complications including postpartum depression are conditions that we can avoid by practising the right lifestyle even before pregnancy. It is important to understand that we need to get our body and minds ready for pregnancy even before planning for the conception of the baby. It is possible that trauma or some personal trials we have gone or are going through could impede and affect us in the long-run, therefore, we need to solve them as properly and appropriately as required.

While most people view postpartum depression as normal and look to treat it only, it is ideal to start by preventing it. The belief that eating the baby’s placenta helps to solve postpartum depression is one of the more popular beliefs these days. Even though there is no medical backing for this belief, a lot of people have testified to it working for them. So, even if you resort to eating the placenta or other treatment options you can be sure it would work fine because you have already taken other precautions even before childbirth.

Depressed young woman with a cute baby at home

We all know that is important to ensure adequate preparations are made before delivery so that both you and your baby are safe and healthy during childbirth, labour and even beyond.

While prenatal care acts as preventive healthcare and handles the aforementioned, postnatal care deals with healing and maintenance. Together, they are essential for the smooth flow of the period from gestation to after parturition. However, there is a particular period which encompasses pregnancy, delivery, and post-delivery and is being identified to be very important and especially to postpartum health.

This particular period called the perinatal period has been identified by WHO as directly linked to maternal health. This period has varying definitions from different bodies ranging from 20-26 weeks of gestation to 1-4 weeks after birth. However, the WHO strictly limits this period as from 22 completed weeks (154 days) of gestation to 7 completed days of birth. Essentially, it is the period surrounding (peri-) birth (natal).

In recent times, the number of babies who die during pregnancy or childbirth has decreased drastically. However, this is not the case for the mothers as there has been in fact, an increase in maternal deaths. Maternal deaths and other postpartum complications have been on the rise and this has been linked to several causes including;

Trauma before pregnancy: it may interest you to note that even conditions that the mother experienced before getting pregnant could still affect her enough during pregnancy. It is better to try to solve these and prepare for an upcoming baby as past traumas tend to rear up their head and may cause complications during pregnancy.

Medical conditions: with the increasing number of cardiovascular, metabolic and other such disorders prevalent in the world now, they could act as a precursor to complications during the pregnancy.

Age of mother: women above 35 years are at a higher risk of coming down with pregnancy-related complications. In the first place, there is a decreased chance of getting pregnant due to declining fertility. Also, they usually have less ability to maintain pregnancy due in part to the declining health, the possibility of multiple births and hormonal imbalance. Therefore, they are at more risk of birth complications.

Perinatal care and maternal health

As earlier established, perinatal care is the care provided around the time of birth and has even been proposed to be the most important. At the beginning of this period, the body starts to prepare for parturition and this is essentially a very delicate time for both child and mother. Also, it is at this point that most mental health problems associated with pregnancy are observed to come up. Therefore, it is important to take perinatal care important.

Postpartum depression

Among the many complications that occur after pregnancy, postpartum depression is usually deemed to be one of the most serious. It was documented by the American Pregnancy Association that between 10-20% of all mothers and more commonly first-time mothers come down with this condition. While It usually presents in different ways depending on the woman, some attributes are similar and cut across. These are;

Crying spells

Mood swings

Difficulty sleeping

Anxiety disorders

Appetite problems

Feeling overwhelmed

Reduced concentration.

During the first two weeks post parturition, these symptoms may be observed and would generally go off on their own in 80- 90% of mothers. However, with postpartum depression, these symptoms do not wear off that easily and instead start to impede the mother’s ability to take proper care of her child and herself. At this point, it is important to bring in therapy and counselling to cure this problem.

Some risk factors associated with postpartum depression include;

Multiple births

Financial problems

History of depression

Unplanned pregnancy

Breastfeeding difficulty

Patients with bipolar disorder

Family members with depression

Stressful events over the past year

Health problems or special need child

Postpartum depression in a previous pregnancy.

It is extremely important to treat postpartum depression as soon as possible as it can bring about an extreme mood disorder called postpartum psychosis. Postpartum psychosis has more severe symptoms such as paranoia, confusion, health deterioration, hallucinations, delusions and also attempts to harm yourself and your baby.

There have been many documented and approved methods to treat postpartum depression depending on its severity such as psychotherapy and use of antidepressant agents.

Dealing with postpartum depression

Even though there are so many methods of treating and managing postpartum depression, it is known that prevention is always better than cure. With a situation as serious as postpartum depression, the process of avoiding it is certainly better than treating it and some salient tips could help with that.

Bearing in mind that we earlier mentioned perinatal care, it is posited that proper care before pregnancy and also before delivery would reduce the risk of such complications as postpartum depression.

Therefore, the tips that are essential to ensure you are in the right frame of mind to be a mother include;

 Reasons To Stop Thinking About My Experience Eating Placenta

My experience eating my placenta started with my first child. I had read about the benefit of consuming the placenta and wanted to experience it. So once my daughter was born I requested my placenta. I signed the paperwork given by the midwife, she explained the risks of taking a human waste organ. I didn’t intend to encapsulate the placenta. So I froze the placenta. I heard from friends and read about people cooking or making placenta smoothies.

Placenta Appearance.

Five days postpartum my milk had changed from colostrum to white milk and  I was feeling a bit tired. I was not having enough sleep. My husband was studying and had little help as we didn’t have any family around.  So I decided to cook half of my placenta. Firstly I had to wash it very thoroughly because it was really dirty.  Let me take you back to the delivery suite. My daughter was born by emergency caesarean for fetal distress because  I was in labour for 12 hours and there was fresh meconium stained. When the midwife gave me the placenta she just wrapped it in a container together with the meconium sticking on the membranes. Please get this, I am not blaming her.

Let’s Get Cooking

I was so determined I wanted to taste the placenta and get the nutrients to boost my energy. I cooked the placenta as simple as the liver. Put the placenta in my mouth was the longest moment I could remember. It tasted all right but I could stop visualizing the process that  I had gone through. How I wished I had someone to cook for me. However, I just had to put the brave stance and consume the rest of the placenta.

Well, that was fast

Within 48 hours, I noticed was feeling more energized, sleeping a bit better and my milk supply got better. However, my daughter was getting a bit frustrated not latching properly. My breasts were becoming engorged. At first, I thought it was normal as according to the lactation consultation advise. I  started expressing to make it easier for my baby to latch and feed well. Little did  I know I was making it worse. My supply even got worse. I was leaking everywhere through sheets, bras and shirts.

Started having baby blues

Due to the frustration going I started having baby blues. I felt so mood and resentful of baby and husband. Sometimes I felt like just doing nothing. This was quite new to me. I have never had such an experience. I then decided to stop cooking and eating the placenta.

What a change

When I stopped eating the placenta a felt different after 2 days. The mood change and my supply adjusted. The baby started latching on.

My thoughts over Placentaphagy

My body did need what I got from the placenta. Obvious my experience wasn’t scientifically proven. Everyone is different. There are women out there who have had a great experience with eating their placenta or encapsulated.

Advice to other moms

My advice to moms who are interested in eating their placenta go for it with an open mind. I recommend watching for your symptoms. If you are energized, have good breast milk supply and more optimistic, then absolutely go for it. However, if you start feeling moody, have excessive breast milk supply and on placenta pills or raw placenta.  Reconsider the rightful action to take.

Did you consume your placenta after childbirth?

Did you try eating your placenta after childbirth? How did it affect you? Share with us so we can learn from each other?