This is an excellent story from the Orange County Register by Theresa Walker about how postpartum mood disorders impact new fathers. It is sometimes easy to forget the toll these disorders take on our husbands, who are completely unprepared for the role they have to take on in caring for their new babies and their sick wives. Here are some highlights:
" … Left to deal with his wife’s condition, the baby’s care, his job and maintaining their household, Alex suffered, too. Only he didn’t realize it until weeks later, when he found himself bouncing between his own bouts of tears, anger and emotional numbness …
But Alex had to ask for and accept help, something men in his situation are typically reluctant to do.
‘Alex is a good example of someone who could see he was in the middle of it as well, and that it was not just about Elisabeth,’ says Vivianna Schilpp, a licensed clinical social worker with St. Joseph who provides individual and group therapy for the postpartum program.
‘I would love to see more men do that – to participate, ask questions, be honest about how it affects them and admit that they don’t know what to do when she falls apart.’
The dads can become depressed and angry over what’s happened to their families. They can physically exhaust themselves.
The dads’ first inclination is to fix it – a common male response. But they don’t know how.
‘They take on this tremendous role, especially initially,’ Schilpp says. ‘There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about postpartum depression, and if he doesn’t have a place to ask questions and talk about how it’s affecting him, there often is a huge strain on a marriage.’"
