{"id":7830,"date":"2022-04-29T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T10:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smama.blog\/postporodajna-depresija\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T17:55:03","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T15:55:03","slug":"postpartum-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smama.blog\/en\/postpartum-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Postpartum Depression, or: How Can You Not Be Happy When You’re a Mother?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

They say we should be happy once we become parents, and yet we feel some kind of sadness. How do we know when it’s postpartum depression?<\/p>\n

Bringing a child into the world is a huge thing!<\/p>\n

And while we usually focus on the birth itself and prepare for that, we’re rarely truly ready for what comes after \u2014 a lifetime of caring for a new person.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So many feelings surface in those first moments, days, months, constantly tangled together \u2014 insecurity, fear, exhaustion, happiness, excitement, worry, self-doubt\u2026<\/p>\n

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Can I actually do this? How am I going to manage all of it? Am I doing this right?<\/em> Who knows how many questions like these spin through your head every single day.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But what if those questions aren’t as harmless as they seem?<\/h2>\n

I wouldn’t say I had depression after having Sofka, but I’d be lying if I said every moment was carefree.<\/p>\n

Very often, especially during the nights when I was breastfeeding her, while everyone else in the house slept, I had thoughts that made me doubt my abilities as a mother, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n

The fact that I was, at the time, the only one in my immediate circle who’d had a baby meant I had no one to share those experiences and emotions with.<\/p>\n

I don’t personally know anyone who’s struggled with postpartum depression.<\/p>\n

Is that because genuinely no one around me has had it, or \u2014 the far more likely explanation \u2014 because we simply don’t talk about it<\/strong>, since we all know that feelings, especially the negative ones, are still deeply taboo in our society.<\/p>\n

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What kind of mother are you if you’re not overjoyed by your child every single moment of your life and theirs?<\/em> is a voice so deeply lodged in each of our heads that saying it out loud almost feels redundant (which, of course, doesn’t stop plenty of people from saying it anyway).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And postpartum depression is a very real problem, one our great-grandmothers probably fought too<\/strong> (they just didn’t have a name for it).<\/p>\n

In fact, according to the book The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read<\/a><\/em> by Philippa Perry, between 10 and 15 percent of new mothers are affected by postpartum depression every year.<\/strong> (Perry, 2020, pos. 1690).<\/p>\n

So I went looking for expert advice. Aleksandra Jedvaj<\/a><\/strong> is a psychologist with a master’s degree who, besides being an expert on the topic, has also lived it herself, as a mother.<\/p>\n

\"postporodjajna<\/a>

Aleksandra Jedvaj<\/p><\/div>\n

1. How do we tell the difference between the exhaustion and overwhelm that comes with becoming a parent, and actual postnatal depression?<\/h4>\n

After a baby arrives, the widest range of emotions will surface throughout our journey called parenting, along with exhaustion that will come and go. Because having a child, or children, takes both mental and physical effort<\/strong>, and it isn’t something you do once and check off \u2014 it’s a lifelong process.<\/p>\n

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According to research, postpartum depression tends to appear within the first 4 to 8 weeks, or within a few months, after giving birth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s accompanied by the following symptoms:<\/p>\n