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There is a medical condition called Postpartum Psychosis.

 

I know majority are not aware:

So please share this post to educate people.

 

In this condition,

A mother who has just delivered a baby can develop severe psychotic mental illness which makes the woman have serious paranoid delusional ideas about themselves, their partner or their baby.

 

If this condition is not quickly diagnosed and treated, the woman can kill herself, and kill the baby. It is a mental illness; it is not normal behavior.

 

WHAT CAUSES POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS? 


There is no clear cause. But there are things that may increase the risk of a woman developing it. These are:

  1.  If the woman is from a family where other women have had psychosis, severe mental illness or specifically postpartum depression. It sometimes run in families.
  2.  If the woman herself has had it before, then it can happen again.
  3.  If the woman already has mental illness before the pregnancy which then got worsened during the pregnancy.
  4.  If the woman had sleep deprivation.
  5.  If the woman had severe stress during the pregnancy.
  6.  If the woman had a very severe traumatizing or stressful birth/delivery for the baby.
  7.  Sometimes there’s no clear reason and it’s suspected to be due to hormone changes.

HOW TO DETECT POSTPARTUM PSYCHOSIS? 


There are usually signs to know. These include:

1. Confusion and disorientation.

2. Hearing voices that are not there.

3. Seeing things/people that are not there.

4. Referring to themselves as worthless, hopeless and useless. Suggesting it will be better if they never had the baby.

5. Wishing or stating desires to be dead.

6. Seeing their partner as someone else.

7. Staying away from the baby or referring to the baby as evil, bad, witch, demonic, or insinuating the baby should be killed.

8. Severe anxiety and agitation.

9. Severe inability to rest or sleep for days.

10. Having very erratic moods- crying, angry, upset, detached, irritated all the time.

11. Hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.

 

If you see any or all of these signs in a woman who has just had a baby, go straight to a hospital or get a doctor to see them the same day.

 

WHAT IS THE TREATMENT?

The treatment depends on the severity.

It may require hospital admission or home treatment with close monitoring.

The woman will need medications and mental health counselling/psychotherapy.

 


I know in Nigeria, we trivialize and minimize mental health, so not many people are aware of things like this.

 

A lot of mothers are labelled “witches” when they were suffering from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis that can be treated if only, we offer them urgent medical assessment and early treatment.

 

What the woman in this video shared here needs first of all is urgent psychiatric assessment and intervention- not a police cell. The police can investigate later but she needs her psychiatric state assessed and mental help offered immediately.

 

Please kindly share this post to help a family, a couple, and a mother out there. You never know who this information will benefit. Thank you.


#OnlineDoc


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Location: United Kingdom

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