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Postpartum Depression: 300,000 Women Per Year Go Untreated · Millennial Mental Health Channel

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If there's one thing we've said on the show over the last almost four years
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is that mental health does not give a damn who you are, how much
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money you got, what resources you have, you can still be impacted.
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This is Millennial Mental Health Channel. I'm doctor Justin Romano, a Child and
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Adolescent psychiatry fellow, and I'm Eddie Creo, a licensed clinical therapist. Our
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podcast is here because we wanted to start a much needed conversation about mental health.
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Our goal is to teach you as much as we can by sharing our
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own experiences and interviewing experts in the mental health field. We will discuss topics
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like mood disorders, psychotic disorders, substance use, personality disorders, and many
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more. Millennial Mental Health Channel buy Millennials for everyone. We hope you enjoyed
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today's episode. M MHC is a production of Spreaker from iHeartMedia b Welcome to
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Millennial Mental Health Channel. Been a while since I had a Spanish opening.
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I like to do it because it makes Eddie feel happy inside. How are
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you doing, my friend? You know if you actually listen back to the
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last episode, he also did a Spanish intro, so like now, I
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think it's I'm just kidding. I'm making Wow now I just seem very insensitive.
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No, you are correct. I do like it. I enjoy it
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very much. I think you asked how I'm doing. I totally forgot because
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I was already ready to answer you. I'm good. It's good to see
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you, my friend. I always say I'm excited for today's episode. I'm
1:23
gonna say I'm not excited for today's episode, but I'm just excited to talk
1:26
to you perfect. I appreciate your honesty and I know you're lying, but
1:32
I heard you're getting a c in your house. I'm very happy for you
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that you'll get the cool off. And that's that's the hope, man,
1:38
that's the expectation. I guess things can change between now and Friday, but
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that's that's the goal. Well, I wanted to warn you that my upstairs
1:49
in my house does not get great airflow. So I'm officially in the hot
1:53
season in Omaha, Nebraska in the Midwest. So if I randomly take off
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my shirt during this interview this episode, it's because it's way too hot in
2:02
here. And also a little incentive for our YouTube viewers. We're gonna highlight
2:07
that on the little shorts and the reels that we post and the tictoks just
2:12
justin shirtless. I'm gonna like take off the volume and I'm gonna add different
2:16
music and then it'll just be you shirtless. Okay, that's enowly taking it
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off. Nothing gets the viewers like man boobs. That's what I've learned,
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that's what I've heard, that's what the research shows. I don't know.
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Well, mindfulness moment for today. We just recently added this to the show
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Eddie Mindfulness question for the day. What is your purpose in life? I'm
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shaking my head because I read this hours ago and I'm like, how the
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fuck am I going to answer this? I think I'm just gonna say to
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help others. I think we choose this profession because it's something that we want
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to do. We're mental health professionals because it is important to us. I've
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had kids tell me all the time, you don't actually care. It's your
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job to care, And you're absolutely right. Technically, I get a paycheck
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to care, but if I didn't care, I could definitely do something else.
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So I genuinely care, and I think my purpose is to help others.
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What about you? Yeah? Well, even to follow up on that,
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I've had patience. When I'm doing something that they don't want, they'll
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say that, they'll throw that out. They'll be like, you don't care.
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You're getting paid to be here, like you know, doctors make bank.
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You know, you don't really care about me, And yeah, I
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was just like, I could have gone into surgery instead and made twice as
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much, but I chose to help you with your mental health. So yeah,
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we do this because we do really genuinely care. You could have drove
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a sick ass sports car. Yeah, I know. I could have had
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a Jaguia. I could have been just flying around in Omaha, Nebraska could
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Yeah, but I didn't want that life. Honestly, I feel like my
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purpose in life was to be a dad. I've always kind of felt like
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that. I've always really wanted to be a father, and as an evolutionist,
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I thought, there is nothing more important than having a child and not
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only passing your genetics, but your knowledge and your love and your worldviews onto
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the next generation. And hopefully I don't scar my boy too much. Yeah,
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I always really wanted to be a dad. So really really happy that
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that happened about two and a half months ago. We gotta ask Liam if
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if you scarred him yet. I'm assuming no, but get him on the
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show, get him a microphone. He's our next guest. He's not going
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to talk much, but he's a rather flatulent young man. So forty five
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minutes of noises, baby noises, and baby farts, he's going to be
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great at it. Most listened to episode Well today we are talking about postpartum
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depression. Honestly, I just had a baby with my wife. We have
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a two and a half month old son, and it made me realize just
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how hard having a kid is is, especially on women, how stressful it
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is. It allowed me to see this process and everything that they have to
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go through. I was lucky enough to get a month off of work.
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That was such a blessing. And my wife doesn't have to work right now,
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luckily, so she said all the time, and it made me think,
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like, how do people do this? Yeah, that most people I've
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talked you said, like, you got a month off, man, I
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got a week. I had to pay to get time off to have a
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baby. Most people do this in a week or two, And it just
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it blew my mind that people that most people in America get zero support from
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their employer to have a child. So I wanted to talk about this on
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the podcast. We've had some listeners request a post pardonment depression episode. So
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it was time. In the different jobs that I've had, people were talking
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about like, oh, I'm you're about to go on maternity leave, paternity
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leave. I had to go on short term disability to even get any kind
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of money, or I had to I've been saving vacation days for three year
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years just so I can have some extra time off. Like paternity and maternity
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leave in our country is ass It is not good. Anyway, we'll talk
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about it. We'll give you some stats. In fact, I'll start off
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instead of just rambling one of our stats and facts. Each year, they
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are about three point seven million births in the US. According to Forbes,
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who is the leading provider in statistics. I'm making that title up. The
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average cost to have a baby for just the medical care in the US is
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about eighteen thousand dollars. The typical out of pocket cost is about three thousand
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dollars. So that's even if you have full coverage medical insurance, you're still
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paying something, which is like, what's the point of medical insurance. But
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we can talk, we can argue and talk about that at some other time,
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and justin I'll let you do this next part because this is more specific
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to you. But it's like the three thousand is just like typical. It
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could definitely be more. It can absolutely be more. Me and my wife
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definitely spent a lot more. We did have a c section, which the
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average cost of a C section in the United States is twenty six thousand dollars.
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That's not the out of pocket, that's a total. But for comparison,
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because I brought up this argument the other day that other countries you can
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have babies for essentially free, and the argument back was, well, all
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you got to pay higher taxes in those countries. Yes, for comparison,
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in the United Kingdom, it costs about three thousand dollars total to have a
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vaginal delivery, so that's eighteen thousand down to three thousand, But they do
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have about on average about eight percent higher tax right, so you do play
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slightly higher taxes, but it is a lot cheaper in other countries to have
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a baby. Some postpartum stats in facts, so the name postpartum depression was
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only invented in nineteen eighty and we've been studying since around the time that it
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was invented. That's like, oh man, why didn't I say it like
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that? You ever see that video where the lady is like a newscaster and
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she's like, tonight at ten, we'll be talking about the house that burned
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down because of a fire. And it was burned down in a fire.
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Yeah, alright, alright, I'll let you keep going. I'm off I
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would say keep going. I believe in you, and I know that you
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can recover. Okay, all right. According to Postpartum Depression dot Org,
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about one in ten women who give birth will experience postpartum depression. The number
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could be as high as one in seven, and for first time mothers this
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can be as high as one in five. So if we extrapolate the data
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big science you word there, If we have almost four million berths in the
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United States per year and one in seven half postpartum, that means about six
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hundred thousand cases per year are happening in the United States. So this is
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affecting a lot of women. It's important because depression impacts lives of mothers and
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the baby. It's not just a one time thing, and I think we've
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talked about We talked about depression two episodes ago. We did Depression Part two.
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Depression impacts a ton of people, So to have a type of depression
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completely centered around this significant life event, I think that shows how much it
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happens, how prevalent it is, and how many people are impacted. In
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terms of symptoms, they typically last for three to six months, and fifty
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percent of women with postpartum depression a week. For the sake of the episode,
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we could say PPD will never be diagnosed by a healthcare professional, so
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the outpatient doctor's office is usually pretty good about monitoring for this. But I
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gotta say, when my wife and I were in the hospital, there was
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one nurse who just rushed through all the depression questions and used a lot of
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leading questions. I was like, well, you're not feeling depressed, right,
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You're right, you're not feeling depressed, And oh man, I sure
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do hate it when people ask questions like that and kind of gloss over the
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mental health part of things. Yeah, did you tell the nurse you're a
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psychiatrist? I didn't because I didn't want to be a douche like, actually,
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man, I am a psychiatrist and you're asking those questions all wrong.
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I gave her some slack. That's fair. That's hey. You know what,
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nurses are the backbone of our hospital system. We don't need to be
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shifting on them. But if you're a nurse and you're listening, just take
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this as a good reminder of like maybe we'll slow down a little. I
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mean I use it all the time, like it's when we'll talk on the
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show, like, oh, that's a good reminder that I should maybe do
10:20
this a little better or I should be more mindful of this. So it
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was good to remember, and you know, to even spread the shit around
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a little bit. I heard of psychiatrist the other day who's like, you're
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not having any like suicidal thoughts or anything, right, And I was like,
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dah, come on, it's everyone. It's it's a whole culture of
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learning how to talk about this stuff. Fair. If you have pre existing
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depression or anxiety before getting pregnant, you're more prone to getting PPD. In
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terms of like racial diversity or things that we see across ethnicities and races,
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Native American women are most likely to get PPD at a rate of sixteen point
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six percent white or caucade. Asian women is eleven point seven percent, African
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American is three point thirteen point four percent, Latin x is eleven point five
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percent, and Asian women is seven point four percent, which is curious to
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me why Asian population is so much less in terms of event and I wonder
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I didn't find anything about the statistics and as to why that is, but
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it is curious. But also how about the men, since we do got
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two rows on here talking about mental health. So one study found that fifty
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percent of men who have a wife with PPD postpartent depression will also go on
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to develop depression. So it impacts the DAIA, the relationship, the parent
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relationship as well. An important note is that adoptive parents are also at high
11:45
risk for developing PPD. I think that's a forgotten set of people. Adoptive
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parents or even foster parents, people who who will take in children for an
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unspecified amount of time. They're still at risk for developing PPD if they're even
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if they're not the one that necessarily gave birth to the child. I found
12:03
that fascinating, but it makes sense because it's just stressful to have a new
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baby in the house, I cannot imagine there's lots of crying, lots of
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poopin, lots of pean. Okay, but what about with Liam. Lots
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of crying, lots of poopin lots of pean, lots of pukin. I
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meant more, those were issues that you had before Liam got here. I
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get you, I got you. Dana. Yes, I am in zero
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control of my bodily functions. Unfortunately, you know, Dana did also mention
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that you should have your own what is it Surgeon general warning? That's I
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just want to throw that out there, like I'm I'm bad for women,
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like women should not just in general, because well, the last stat on
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this that we wanted to give you is that the International Labor Organization and Labor
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was actually La bo R, so you know it's extra British, but they
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recommend at least twelve weeks of guaranteed parental leave, and one hundred and nineteen
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countries around the world do this, and the unit US is not one of
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them. It sure does seem like our lawmakers could not care less about the
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mental and physical wellbeing of women in this country. What is the average like
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in the US, do you know Oh man, oh, let's I mean,
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let's look it up. I mean we're here. One study found the
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average time for a time off for working US women after having a baby is
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ten weeks, So it's actually better than I thought. So go USA.
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And you know the part that I think about that, like we're probably still
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lacking in is that our maternity paternity parental leave is most likely like unpaid,
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while as other countries will like keep it paid. So I think that's definitely
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like cool, we got the time off, but then parents are stressing about
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the fact that they're not getting as much money coming into the household that they
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usually would, like Literally, I just spoke to a teacher the other day
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who said that his wife, who's also a teacher, had to pay to
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take like she didn't have any PTO, so she had to pay to have
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a baby, pay for that time off of work. And I was just
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like, classic, that is just insane to me. So all of these
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stats they're here to help us say that having a child can be stressful and
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depression inducing for everyone everyone involved. And you may be asking yourself, so
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why is this? There are a lot of risk factors that go into the
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development of PPD, one of which being if you have pre existing depression or
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anxiety. Another one could be if you've had postpartum depression with other children,
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if this is not your first child. Low social support also contributes to it.
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Definitely. One person is not enough to take care of a baby.
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I think you've probably seen that firsthand, justin it's been wild to me how
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much it takes. And we've had support from grandparents, from friends, and
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it still gets overwhelming sometimes. I mean there's times a baby is crying and
15:05
crying and you've done everything you can possibly think of. You've changed them,
15:09
you've fed them, they've slept like they've got a clean diaper, like everything
15:15
is okay, and they're still just screaming in your face, and it gets
15:18
it wears on you. It messes with your mental health. Yeah, I
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can only imagine. So about fifty percent of women start to develop symptoms of
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PPD during pregnancy. Poor sleep and stress are definitely big factors in that.
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There's also lots of environmental factors too, like socioeconomic status, so low SCS
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and poor access to healthcare and education are also big factors into reasons why people
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develop postpartum depression. One study showed that women in poverty are eleven times more
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likely to develop PPD. That's horrible. That just goes to show you how
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much the financials impact the stress of having a baby. Also major life stressors,
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like a lot of women actually are worried about losing their job if they
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get pregnant, or if they have a recent loss of a family member,
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that can be a big thing. A concurrent health conditions increase your risk for
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PPD, and even a traumatic pregnancy or birthing process can increase your risk for
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PPD as well. I've had a number of I shouldn't say a number,
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like it's been a lot. I've definitely had friends in the past or co
16:25
workers who have told me like they're going like they're interviewing for another job,
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or they're going to interview for a job and they know that they're pregnant,
16:32
but they won't say anything yeah their interview because they don't want that to impact
16:36
them getting hired. And I think that's shitty. That's a shitty like you
16:38
having to keep that to yourself, and because you know how like pregnant women,
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pregnant people can end up being treated in our country of like, well,
16:45
if you're pregnant, Like, why would we hire you even if even
16:48
if you are the best candidate. Like that part is fucked up. It
16:51
really is, and it really sucks that that's how we view We only view
16:56
people for their ability to work and be productive for us in this country.
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We don't really treat people like people. There's a lot of range of symptoms
17:04
in terms of postpartum issues there, and it kind of goes postpartum blues,
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postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, So postpartum blues on the milder end of the
17:18
spectrum, it's normal to feel down and sad after having a baby. Baby
17:23
blues is considered that normal sadness that can come after delivery due to a number
17:29
of different factors, like you're not sleeping as much, You've got a ton
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of hormonal changes. From a aductory standpoint, there's a dip in estrogen and
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progesterone that we think is what causes or what increases your risk of having postpartum
17:45
blues and depression and the symptoms of baby blues. So those normal symptoms of
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that sadness that can come from having a baby are having a little more anxiety,
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crying more slightly more irritable, restlessness, tiredness, and typically the baby
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blues only last for weeks and itself resolves. Kind of that next part in
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the spectrum of what can happen with symptoms is postpartum depression has a lot of
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different types of symptoms, so some examples include emotional symptoms, so excessive or
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uncontrollable crying, persistent feeling of sadness and hopelessness, feeling numb or empty,
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extreme mood swings, irritability and restlessness, feelings of anger and rage, being
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easily frustrated, anxiety and fear, and then guilt and shame. And right
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as I'm reading that, I'm like, man, these are the exact same
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symptoms as major depressive disorder. It's basically the same thing, just with a
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different probably leading our causal event right in front of it. Yeah, bingo.
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There are some mental symptoms like poor concentration, memory problems, difficulty making
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decisions, doubting your ability to care for a baby, and feeling overwhelmed.
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And again there's lots of crossover between major depressive next up or physical symptoms,
19:00
so changes an appetite, poor sleep or hypersomnia, low energy, muscle aches
19:07
and pain, headache and stomach ache. Typical changes in behavior can look like
19:11
isolating or withdrawing from friends and family. Feeling like you're not bonding with the
19:17
baby is another big sign that you might be having some postpartum depression. And
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unfortunately, with all of these symptoms and things we've noticed as far as trends,
19:26
recently, suicide attempts over the past decade during or after pregnancy have nearly
19:30
tripled, So it feels like things have just only gotten worse. Yeah,
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I think that just goes to show you the level of support for women who
19:37
have delivered babies in this country. Is that Vanda. The suicide rate,
19:41
amongst other things, is just skyrocketing. It's so sad. You talk about
19:45
like environmental factors. We've talked about this a lot, so I feel like
19:49
maybe sometimes I just repeat myself a lot. But also if you're like looking
19:52
at the news, like how many times our senators and legislators trying to attack
19:57
the reproductive rights of women, even if you're you're gonna have the baby,
20:00
Like you're still living in a society where old white men, for lack of
20:03
a better descriptor, are trying to impact your your rights, your reproductive rights
20:08
as a woman. Okay, this is going to be It's fine, Gray's
20:11
Anatomy. We're Kevin and I've been watching Gray's anati She got me on it
20:15
over the last couple of years, and the last episode. I don't want
20:18
to ruin it for anybody. It's been out since last week, so if
20:21
you don't watch it, you don't watch it. But towards the end of
20:22
the episode, a bunch of the doctors went to Boston for like a reward,
20:26
an award ceremony, and as they're doing the award ceremony, Meredith Gray
20:30
goes up there and starts like talking about the war they're about to present and
20:34
doctor Bailey is like, like, why is she up there? Like I
20:37
thought I was gonna do like the presentation of the award, Like what's going
20:40
on. Well, she ends up getting the award, and they gave her
20:42
this like very prestigious doctory award, and not because of like procedures or things
20:48
she's specifically done, but because of her work that she's done over the season
20:52
of making like a mobile women's health clinic, like in a van, and
20:57
like the amount of like effort she's put into that. So it's I don't
21:00
know. I just share that to say, like if Grey's Anatomy is talking
21:04
about it like it's it's obviously an issue. Man, It's it's fun though,
21:11
totally. And man, that show has been going on for years and
21:15
years. It just got renewed too for another season. What I thought for
21:21
sure, this is the finale. Okay, there's no better not be the
21:23
finale, Dude, there are some some cliffhangers. They got some work to
21:27
do. They gotta wrap up well on that spectrum of baby blues, baby
21:42
depression. Now let's move on to the postpartum psychosis. So this is this
21:48
is a serious thing that we want to talk about, and there are lots
21:52
of different things like that go with having a baby, even postpartum anxiety,
21:56
Like seventy five percent of women with postpartum depression also have postpartum anxiety. Those
22:02
things tend to go together. What's a little more rare is that postpartum psychosis.
22:07
And you can have symptoms of psychosis like true legitimate psychosis like hallucinations,
22:12
delusions, and even flattening of your affect. You're not emoding quite as well
22:18
as you used to. There's a really high risk for suicide or infanticide,
22:25
which is why typically in the metal community medical community we recommend in patient hospitalization
22:30
for the mother in these situations because you're not getting any sleep, you have
22:34
a screaming baby all the time, your brain can have a psychotic episode,
22:40
and it's actually more common and that I want to really try and get this
22:44
information out there because I want people to be aware of it so that they
22:48
can help their friends and family members if this does happen to them. For
22:52
me, I had no idea that postpartum psychosis was even a thing to look
22:56
out for. Surprisingly enough, the diagnosis, the psychiatric diagnosis that is most
23:00
likely to have a psychotic episode after having a baby is bipolar disorder. So
23:06
if you've been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, just be aware, maybe educate your
23:11
family members about what to look out for, Like if you're starting to have
23:15
hallucinations, if maybe you're thinking is not quite making sense, those are the
23:18
little signs that maybe you need to start reaching out for help. I noticed
23:22
you put down postpartum OCD. Can you tell me a little bit more of
23:25
that. This is another thing I'm about to learn. Yeah, very interesting.
23:30
Amongst the wide variety of things that you can get in the postpartum.
23:34
In postpartum phase, because so many changes are happening to your body and your
23:38
brain, you can actually get an onset of obsessive compulsive disorder. So if
23:45
you've just had a baby and you notice that your mental health is doing things
23:48
that it never really did before, we hope you understand that this is somewhat
23:52
normal. You shouldn't feel ashamed for it, give yourself some grace, and
23:56
just we hope that you reach out and ask for help, especially if it's
24:00
getting in the way of you living your life, getting in the way of
24:03
your bonding with your baby, Like, it's not your fault, just get
24:06
some help for it so it can get better faster. The mothers, the
24:10
birth givers, the child bearers, you are the expert, so please being
24:15
able to reach out as much as you can. If you start to notice
24:18
like this is more than I can handle, this is more than I've ever
24:22
had to experience like and my biggest hope is that people around you will listen.
24:26
So before we jump into treatment options, we want to do a quick
24:30
nerd alert for this episode because we like to talk about brains and nerds love
24:34
brains, and we're nerds here, So this nerd alert comes courtesy of science
24:40
dot org, and there was a really good paper on there, a good
24:44
study that showed that pregnancy and delivering a baby actually leads to significant and measurable
24:49
brain changes for up to two years after you've delivered that baby. So gray
24:56
matter, which is actually responsible for the brain, proces sessing. So the
25:00
gray matter in your brain's like the computer chip. The white matter is like
25:03
the wires that transfer all the information, so they're actual processing you. That
25:07
the gray matter shrinks and changes quite a bit after you've had a baby up
25:14
to two years after you've had that baby, so loss of gray matter is
25:17
not necessarily a bad thing and could just mean that there are changes happening to
25:21
your brain to make you even a better parent. For example, some studies
25:26
have shown that the degree of gray matter loss correlates with the level of attachment
25:30
to the baby, so interesting your brain is literally changing and encouraging you to
25:37
bond with that baby to become more attached. The hippocampus, which is Ed's
25:41
favorite part of the brain, loses a measurable gray matter, but by that
25:48
two years it regains what it has lost. So some people think that that
25:52
might just be a reprocessing or reprogramming of that hippocampus, and studies and rodents
25:57
have actually shown that road mothers after giving birth there are long term anatomical brain
26:03
changes that they think helps them be better at foraging for food because they have
26:08
to forage for food for more than just themselves. So it's just fascinating to
26:14
me how our biology from an evolutionary standpoint is so primed to become parents,
26:21
Like our brains are programmed to respond to being parents, and having progeny has
26:26
like it's almost like it has a like a map or a set of like
26:30
guides on when this, do this, Like this is what's going to happen
26:34
next? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And also it's my favorite part of
26:37
the brain because if you've if you've been here long enough, it's the only
26:40
part I remember. All Right, here we go, I tell you man
26:45
injured a neuroscience was toukay shout out doctor Island. So as far as treatment,
26:52
so we have some tips from the Mayo Clinic things that you can do.
26:55
There are things that you can do to prevent and treat this. You
26:57
know, we never we hope that it never happens too, but if it
27:00
does, it is good to have a plan to get some help. So
27:03
preventive stuff is trying to get as much rest as possible, which is like,
27:07
how can I tell that to a new mother with a young baby.
27:10
I am, I have no right to do so, but I guess just
27:14
a reminder when possible, if possible, when you can, please take care
27:18
of yourself. I know, stuff justin give Dan a little more of a
27:19
break. Next up, we have to accept help from family and friends.
27:26
I'm sure that can be tough. I can't imagine what it's like to intrust
27:30
like your new born, you just brought this into the world. I can't
27:33
imagine how hard it is to trust people, even like your most trusted family
27:37
members, friends like, it's still got to be pretty tough to trust them
27:40
with giving you help. So I can understand that that part, or I
27:44
can try to understand that could be difficult. But we want to remind you
27:48
when feels comfortable, please accept help from your family and friends. And I've
27:52
noticed that there is so much pressure on moms, especially these days from social
27:57
media. It feels like there's this mindset of you're the mom, you need
28:03
to be the one sacrificing your well being for your baby. You need to
28:07
be the one, and I can see where that comes from, but it's
28:11
just not helping anybody. And if you need help, please please please just
28:17
ask for it, use your supports that are there, because man, it
28:21
can get overwhelming pretty quickly. Some other things that you can do to help
28:26
prevent postpartum depression from happening is connect with other new moms who are going through
28:32
similar things. Just be able to connect and collaborate, get advice, have
28:37
someone who understands what you're going through. That goes a long way. Connect
28:41
with a lactation consultant if you're struggling to feed. We honestly saw a lactation
28:47
consultants when our baby was just a couple of weeks old. It helped us
28:49
tremendously and we really appreciated all the knowledge that she gave us. And another
28:55
possibly insulting thing to say to a new mother is make time for yourself and
29:00
your well being. If you can find someone who's willing to babysit a young
29:03
baby for a night, go take a night to yourself. Go give your
29:07
baby to your significant other, and take some time for yourself, do it.
29:12
It's okay, and honestly, it makes you a little bit mentally better
29:18
so that you can be a better mom. And having breaks is important and
29:22
needed. From a medical side, so as far as major depressive disorder and
29:26
postpartum we typically recommend therapy and medication. Just that. I'm sure you can
29:32
talk about the medication part more, but as far as therapy, it allows
29:36
new mothers to process everything that they've been going through, help problem solve,
29:40
hopefully improve communication skills with family, and then normalize your experiences because it is
29:45
it's brand new, and I'm sure you mentioned that there's about six hundred thousand
29:48
births every year. You're not the only person that's giving birth, but I'm
29:52
sure it can feel like an extremely isolated event and feel like you're the only
29:56
person going through this. And from the medication side of things, medication can
30:00
be useful and most antidepressants are safe in breastfeeding. There are minimal side effects
30:07
that have been studied and found to be really minor stuff, nothing like major
30:11
conclusions, and studies have actually shown that any side effects that are from antidepressant
30:17
medications are not nearly as bad as the effects of having a really depressed mom.
30:22
If mom is depressed, then they're going to be big things that are
30:26
happening to the baby. It's going to impair attachment, going to impair some
30:29
of some of the major things that happen have to happen between that mother and
30:33
baby. So please please please reach out for help if you feel like this
30:37
is happening to you. The treatment for postpartonment depression is really successful because there
30:44
is kind of a natural time course of this. Usually this stuff gets better
30:48
on its own, but if you actually seek treatment, the success rate is
30:52
about eighty percent if you seek treatment, so it gets it gets better faster
30:56
and quickly. There's even new injections for postpartum depression called The one that is
31:03
FDA approved is called brexan alone, which is the only FDA approved medicine specifically
31:08
for postpartum depression. They think it helps slow down the major hormone changes in
31:15
that postpartum period, and there's some evidence that it might be more effective than
31:18
a traditional antidepression antidepressant, but most people are still using just typical regular antidepressants,
31:26
the ones that we used in the past. The main thing is if
31:29
you're struggling, go get help. Any of these medications are going to help
31:33
you. The injection might help. The pills are definitely going to help.
31:37
Just just seek help if you're struggling. As we moved to the celebrity portion
31:41
of our show, we want to shout out Today's Parents dot Com that gives
31:45
us some example of celebrities who've been open about their postpartum depression experience. First
31:49
one being Chrissy Tigan. I feel like I used to see her a lot
31:52
more on social media, like on Twitter. I think she's probably taken some
31:56
steps back, and if anything, it's probably to give her and John Legends
32:00
some space from people. Because people are mean, man Like, they really
32:04
are mean. It can be pretty hard. I can only imagine how hard
32:07
it could be to be a celebrity and have to do with this deal with
32:09
other people. But they had a child in twenty sixteen, and they later
32:14
gave Glamor an interview where they said, and I quote, I had everything
32:19
I needed to be happy, and yet for much of the last year I
32:22
felt unhappy. Well basically everyone around me but me knew up until December was
32:27
this I have postpartum depression. I looked at my doctor, my eyes wobbed
32:30
up because I was so tired of being in pain, of sleeping on the
32:35
couch, of waking up throughout the night, of throwing up, of taking
32:37
things out on the wrong people, of not enjoying life, of not seeing
32:42
my friends, of not having the energy to take my baby for a stroll.
32:45
My doctor pulled out a book and started listing symptoms, and I was
32:49
like, yep, yep, yep, and I got my diagnosis, postpartum
32:52
depression and anxiety. I love Christy Taging because she's been so open about the
32:59
things that she has been through, and I think she's got a great platform.
33:02
And yeah, women women love her. She's been and John Legend is
33:07
fantastically talented, so you know, good for them. She is not Tigan.
33:12
I think everyone calls Hertigan. But then there was something that came out
33:15
a couple of years ago that said, like, actually it's Tiging, but
33:17
she never really corrected anyone, So who knows. That's like arian A Grande,
33:22
like if you look it up, apparently supposed to be like arian A
33:25
grand D or something like, it's like different, like like, come on,
33:31
I don't know, man, anyway, one thing I'll say before you
33:35
move on to the next one. It made me think of this, there's
33:36
actually a thing recently without within the last like a week or so, and
33:39
this is not necessarily postpartum depression, but just like the difficulty it is to
33:45
be a single parent, Like even Kim Kardashian came out and said, like,
33:47
it's pretty hard to be a single parent, and like, I had
33:52
a mixed reaction the first time I read. It's like, well, you
33:53
know your richest fuck, Like can't you like handle it? But then it's
33:57
like, Okay, let me take a step back. Like, if there's
34:00
one thing we've said on the show over the last almost four years is that
34:05
mental health does not give a damn who you are, how much money you
34:07
got, what resources you have, you can still be impacted. So I
34:12
think we should still give her grace, like for her to come out and
34:14
say that, Like, my hope is that it was normalizing for people good.
34:19
I kind of like Kim Kardashian. I like what she's doing with the
34:22
legal system. I like that she's trying to get innocent people off. I
34:24
think maybe she got her fame based on purely superficial things and her looks,
34:31
But I think she's trying to turn it into something deeper, and I appreciate
34:35
that about her. I don't know if I can remember a reason to not
34:37
like her. I'm sure someone can remind me, but I don't know if
34:40
I have a reason. And I'm not saying I don't like her. I
34:45
think like similar to you, Like, I don't know if I think she
34:49
gets hated on a lot for probably for the reasons you're mentioning, but I
34:52
don't know if I really I don't know if I feel the same way.
34:54
Yeah, it seems like when anyone gets too famous then there has to be
34:58
a backlash. Yeah, it's the Dane Cook effect. Like he was the
35:02
biggest stand up comedian in the world and all of a sudden everyone was like,
35:07
I hate Dane Cook, Like all right, whatever. He also has
35:09
like a nineteen year old girlfriend, Like that's kind of weird, like that
35:14
he may have met before. Anyway, that's a different show, all right.
35:16
Next up, Yeah, I didn't know that part about it. I
35:20
take back what I said about Dank Cook. I don't like it perfect well.
35:23
I Next, we have Drew Barrymore. She got postpartum depression on her
35:28
second child, not her first. So it took her by surprise when her
35:34
response to having a baby was totally different than her first one. She had
35:38
symptoms for six months, and she said she made a lot of work life
35:44
balance changes that helped her get past her depression episodes. I really appreciated that
35:49
about her. And then the last one, and I've started using this term
35:54
with my wife. It's like, ed, I don't want to trivia shame
35:58
you, but do you know who Brooke Shields is? While you're doing it?
36:01
It sounds familiar. Let me let me look her up. She was
36:08
a very popular slash actor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it has been
36:15
around since the eighties. So my wife and I just watched her documentary on
36:19
Hulu called Pretty Baby, and it was really good. It was a fantastic
36:23
documentary, just giving us the context of how she was fourteen years old when
36:30
she was a major sex symbol, which is a little creepy and hopefully that
36:35
changes and continues to change. But in the documentary, I had actually just
36:38
written the script for this episode and she was talking about her experience with postpartum
36:44
depression and I was just like, oh my god, this is PPD.
36:46
And then she went out and said it I was diagnosed with postpartum depression.
36:51
But she came out and said that she had postpartum depression and was actually treated
36:53
with medication and therapy. Then of course Tom Cruise had to make a comment
37:00
and take a shit shot at her. And I just learned this term called
37:04
a shit shot. I've you ever heard that before? Anyone know. This
37:07
is my first time. I'm in I'm working at a new rotation. It's
37:12
like an adolescent substance use program actually, and they say this all the time.
37:17
They're like, you're taking shit shots like this. I don't know what
37:21
it is, but I love it. So Tom Cruise took a shit shot
37:23
at Brookshields and said that she was spreading misinformation about mental health even though she
37:30
was just telling her story and her journey. And it reminded me of how
37:35
crazy Tom Cruise is, or used to be at least, and he's still
37:37
a scientologist, and scientologists tend to be very antipsychiatry. And honestly, I
37:45
don't blame scientologist because psychiatry does not have a stellar past, but I think
37:51
there is a new generation of psychiatrists that are trying to change that perception,
37:54
change that history. And either way, Luckily, Tom Cruise apologized and accepted
38:00
the fact that Brooks Shields went through something very difficult, got treatment, got
38:02
better, and was able to help a lot of women by sharing her story
38:07
about postpartum depression. Yeah, screw you, Tom Cruise. I'll let you
38:10
say the last names, the last celebrities we got justin because I'm gonna butcher
38:15
some last names, so hit me with it. So. Other people who
38:19
have also had postpartum depression include Hayden Pinetier. Yeah, I was gonna mess
38:24
that up, Selene Celindon. That was my best Celindion impression. She's a
38:31
little lot, Nasalader, Britney Spears, Amanda Pete from Saving Silverman, Vanessa
38:39
Lache, Courtney Cox, and Adele So lots of people. I shouldn't laugh.
38:49
Matt See. Thank you for saying the names because I was ready for
38:51
Vanessa Lakey. I love you Eddie and I love you for everything that you
39:00
are. Some take home points. I would try to be serious for the
39:07
last two minutes. He's the biggest thing is We really hope that if if
39:09
you're struggling and you reach out, you reach out for help, people will
39:13
take you seriously. And our hope is that if you learn anything from from
39:16
today's episode, whether you're someone who can potentially give birth, whether you're someone
39:20
who will be the support person for someone who's going to give birth, please
39:23
take them seriously, Please offer up help, Please be as supportive as you
39:27
possibly can. My take home point for today is, you know, from
39:31
deeply, from the bottom of my heart, Tom cruise sucks. Cruise.
39:40
Yeah, yeah, Tom cruise, ted cruise, all the cruises really,
39:46
but honestly, just to piggyback on what Eddie said, this is a thing.
39:52
This is a real thing, and a lot of women suffer, and
39:54
like we said earlier, only fifty percent of women actually get help for this
40:00
over the over a half million women that get this per year. Please don't
40:06
suffer in silence. Please reach out for help, Tell someone, try and
40:09
see a doctor, try and see a therapist, because you don't have to
40:14
suffer alone, and getting help can help you really a lot with yourself,
40:19
with your baby. There's just only good can come from getting help. With
40:22
all that, one last shout out to all the moms, caregivers, parents
40:25
out there. We appreciate you and we're here for you. You can get
40:30
this episode in any other episode wherever you get your podcasts. On Apple Podcasts,
40:35
if you'd like, you'd leave a five star review. You can even
40:37
leave us a comment and we'll read it at some point in the near future.
40:39
On Spotify, you can leave a five star review. Follow us on
40:43
Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and a YouTube at Millennial MHC. Thank you
40:47
all for listening, thank you all for the support, and as always,
40:51
take care of your mentals.