Changes in the hormones estrogen and progesterone may cause postpartum. These levels are at an all-time high during pregnancy. Following delivery they drop dramatically back to pre-pregnancy levels. Thyroid hormones levels decreasing after pregnancy also may play a role. Other factors include genetics, emotional and environmental factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily credits supportive people in her life and the doctors and nurses who saw early signs of depression and anxiety \u2013 not just postpartum, but throughout her pregnancy \u2013 and brought it to her attention. This allowed her to talk about it and get whatever help she needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For too long, medical professionals and society did not always acknowledge or take seriously women\u2019s feelings of anxiety and depression associated with miscarriages, pregnancies and postpartum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily never felt that she could not talk about her miscarriage. She said, \u201cNo, never. In fact, I know several women around my age that have had miscarriages. Yes, it’s sad but we don’t hide it. We talk openly about it. My doctor said it is more common than people think. It’s nothing to be ashamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is quite a different story than what previous generations had to deal with. Or maybe the experience some women today still have to endure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An older woman, Anne, said, \u201cWhen I had my first child, back in the \u201890s, looking back I realize now that I suffered from postpartum depression. No one ever brought it to my attention that I was depressed. And no one talked to me about the possibility of having this. I would hear things like, \u2018You just had a baby. Why aren\u2019t you happy?\u2019 It was tough. My anxiety was just chalked up to being an overly paranoid mother. I do remember in my younger years, whenever postpartum or \u2018baby blues\u2019 was mentioned, it had such a negative connotation to it and a stigma attached to it. So, you don\u2019t talk about it. The last thing a mother wants to have is for people to think that you are so depressed you can\u2019t take care of your baby.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Anne herself never had any miscarriages. \u201cNo. But my mother did back in the early \u201870s. She said it was something that just wasn\u2019t talked about much at all. You didn\u2019t really hear much about it. You suffered alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Emily, after already experiencing some depression and anxiety throughout her pregnancy, had a traumatizing delivery that caused her to nearly bleed out. This, compounded with very minimal contact with her newborn son the first 24 hours of his life, caused Emily\u2019s mental health to suffer. She would have to go back to the hospital\u2019s emergency room a couple of days after coming home due to more blood loss. This caused even more time away from her son, more trauma and more anxiety and depression. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Emily was medically stable, seeing Emily was not OK emotionally, a nurse sat up talking with her all night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe fact that that nurse was willing to just stay with me and talk with me for hours was so helpful for me right in that moment. It meant so much to me,\u201d Emily said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, it was so touching, Emily is determined now more than ever to obtain her nursing degree. She wants to work in labor and delivery and be able to help someone else who might be going through the same thing. When she hears that the older generations before her more than likely wouldn\u2019t have had the support she got, she is shocked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily said, \u201cIn my experience, I never once felt like my concerns and feelings regarding my miscarriage, my pregnancy and postpartum were not real or understood by the doctors and nurses I dealt with. I cannot imagine it not being that way. It\u2019s sad and wrong to think that it was not always the case and probably still is in certain situations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Emily and her son, Miles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Emily Buddemeyer, age 21, who lives in Porter, Maine, had a rough pregnancy. Shortly before that, she had a miscarriage. She had a delivery that quickly turned into her almost losing her life. This was not once, but twice within the first few days after giving birth. She also had a hard time mentally and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8086,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7469\/revisions\/8086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2023\/04\/Emily-and-her-son-Miles-1-scaled.jpg\")
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