I think a lot of people believe that postpartum depression advocates inflate the numbers in terms of how many women get PPD and related illnesses.

15%? 20%? No way. Can't be.

Yet to me it's so obvious that the incidence of these illnesses is actually higher than most people think. Just look how many women come out every week on their blogs talking about their experiences. These women represent a small microcosm of the entire population of women having babies.

Have you read the blogs The Mommy Blog, Dooce, No Time For Flash Cards, Moosh In Indy, Beyond Postpartum, My Postpartum Voice, Ivy's PPD Blog, Heir To Blair, Her Bad Mother, Go Erin Go, Laughing Through the Chaos, Pretty Swell, Sophie in the Moonlight, Beyond Blue, Missives From Suburbia, Surrender Dorothy, Mrs. Flinger, The Mummy Chronicles, In the Trenches of Mommyhood, Surprisingly Sane, Depressions and Confessions, Ninotchka Beavers, 2 Much Testosterone, O My Growing Family, Intentional Birth, All Work & No Play Makes Mommy Go Something Something, The Confused Homemaker, I Can Grow People, Medicated in Minnesota, Never Be The Same, Suburban Turmoil, His Boys Can Swim, Living As A Mom, Depressed (But Not Unhappy) Mormon Mommy, Becoming Me, Down-To-Earth Mama andThe Dana Files? I could go on …

More are coming out into the open every day. Go see the mom at My Sweet Babboo talking about her difficulties postpartum. She's not even sure she had PPD, yet her experience was bad enough to make her fear having another child. How about the mom at Blog O'Beth? She's going through it right now:

I spend most of my days feeling overwhelmed and on the verge of tears. All I can think about is wanting to sleep. If I could just sleep. And yet, even when the baby is asleep I can’t sleep. Insomnia plagues me at night. Every obstacle and daily frustration feels like an insurmountable problem that needs to be faced. My mind restlessly wanders from one thought to the next never settling. I’m incapable of decision making. Just getting dressed or deciding what I’ll cook for dinner paralyzes me. I spend hours aimlessly knocking around my house unable to focus my mind on any one task. My inner voice obssessively chants; “So sad. I’m so sad.”

Sound familiar? Then there's the mom at the blog DesignHer Mama talking about all her postpartum anxiety and how many of her readers have apparently gone through the same thing.

I had no idea that postpartum anxiety was so common. I had no idea that these feelings I was experiencing even had a name. Why did I think I was some weird freak?

Why, as women (who easily will share our most deep and darkest secrets with each other) do we rarely share about postpartum struggles? I'm asking, because I don't have an answer for this.

We're getting better at it. Keep that openness and honesty coming, ladies. And if you are a survivor, go here to learn what more you can do to be an inspiration to those who currently suffer.