Beauty Tips

How to Tell if You Have Postpartum Depression

The condition might not be as obvious as you think (lots of women overlook no. 7)

by Rose Curiel | COMMENT

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Ask a new mother about how to best breastfeed, swaddle or change a diaper, and she will no doubt rattle off a list of information she's picked up from self-help books and fellow moms. Ask the same mother how to best tell if a woman is suffering from postpartum depression, and she'll be stumped.

"One of the reasons why it's so difficult to discern postpartum depression is because of the overlap of what we consider to be normal postpartum changes versus what may be problematic," says Karen Kleiman, MSW, LCSW, the founder of the Postpartum Stress Center and co-author of "Dropping the Baby and Other Scary Thoughts."

All new mothers, for example, are likely to have episodes of weepiness and bouts of feeling overwhelmed -- after all, those midnight feedings and raging hormones can take a toll. But there's also a certain point when a woman should be concerned about these emotions. Since postpartum depression affects one in seven women, and it isn't the easiest condition to identify, we tapped Kleiman and Dr. Stephanie Ho, MD, a New York City-based reproductive psychiatrist, to point out the red flags.

SEE NEXT PAGE: Postpartum Depression: It May Be Confused with the Baby Blues

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