In the new book "YOU: The Owner’s Manual" by Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, I happened upon the following factiod:
Essential fatty acids — like omega-3 fatty acids found in fish — can help prevent postpartum depression. When the mother doesn’t have enough of these essential fats, the baby borrows from the mother — leaving the mother with a depleted supply of fatty acids. Research shows that omega-3s are essential for normalizing moods, and consumption of fish correlates with lower rates of depression, and especially postpartum depression.
I get emails all the time from people who think they’ve found the answer to what causes PPD or the answer to what will prevent it. Usually I don’t write about that stuff here because I am not a doctor. If I can’t verify that it is true, then I don’t want to send hundreds of mothers off on a wild goose chase for something that isn’t really effective.
What I can tell you is that I didn’t really eat fish when I was pregnant because I was so afraid of the warnings about mercury. I’d be interested to see what some of the doctors who specialize in postpartum mood disorders think of this quote. If it is indeed true, than how do mothers balance the dangers of mercury with the benefits of omega-3s?
Here in Houston, Baylor College of Medicine is in the middle of a study using Omega 3 in women who are pregnant for the second time (and who had PPD the first time). Their results have been impressive! If you take Omega 3 in capsule form there is no danger of mercury poisoning whatsoever.
There have been and are lots of studies out there that connected decreased Omega -3 "healthy" fatty acids post childbirth to those mothers having PPD related mood disorders. However, we desperately need to continue and expand those studies of the past with increased present day trials "for and with women" to ensure long-lasting positive medical treatment is available for every woman for prevention of PPD and its related maternal mood disorders. Having to guess at what works for a mother after childbirth is part of the medical dilemna – throwing medical guesses at the problem when a woman's hormonal imbalances are already in full swing is not very smart medical practice. We need to pass H.R. 1940 The Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Research and Care Act this year!
I am a holistic doctor (in practice for 30 years with 4 board certifications) specializing in helping mothers recover their postpartum health. I am lead author of the book A NATURAL GUIDE TO PREGNANCY AND POSTPARTUM HEALTH Avery-2003. My website is pregnancyrecovery.com. The nutritional, hormonal, neurotransmitter, and politics of PP women's health issues are thoroughly discussed in our book. This book was written after I had many years of experience running laboratory tests for blood levels of fatty acids, amino acids, minerals, antioxidants, hormones, and urinary neurotransmitter excretion tests on postpartum women. Omega 3's are very important and are part of the equation-they do need to be certified to be free of heavy metals and PCBs to be safe. However they are only one of many important components of pregnancy recovery.There is way too much PP nutritional, hormonal, neurotransmitter (serotonin, norepinephrine etc.)information to communicate in this comments section. I do want you all to know that after years of looking at these tests and treating postpartum women (mostly very successfully) we formulated the first and only postnatal complete nutrient program to help mothers replenish the nutrients their bodies donate to make their baby's body, placenta, etc. We did a placebo-controlled, double blind study on nursing and non- nursing mothers(using a leading prenatal as the placebo) and our postnatal nutrient program called After baby Boost cleared up many postpartum health issues that the prenatals were insufficient to help.The results were and continue to be very very gratifying. I will try to post up an article I wrote to represent the nutritional component of PPD.
My wife and I both had mothers who had emotional breakdowns after giving birth so we are passionate about helping mothers recover their postpartu health.
Sincerely,
Dr. Dean Raffelock
Here is an article I wrote that gives a synopsis of the nutritional component of PPD and postpartum recovery. Hope it is helpful-DR
THE DEEP NEED FOR A POSTNATAL NUTRITIONAL PROGRAM FOR ALL POSTPARTUM WOMEN.
by Dr. Dean Raffelock
Throughout the past 30 years in private practice, hundreds of women have told me they felt that their current health problems started soon after the birth of their child. The child may have been her first or fifth, and might now be a teenager or even a grown man or woman, but the mother remembers the postpartum onset of her symptoms as if it were yesterday.
The symptoms that usually start within the first to twelfth postpartum months vary widely among mothers. A few of the most common are depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, lack of confidence, loss of sex drive and passion, muscle and joint pains, unhealthy skin and hair, digestive disturbances, bladder problems, heart disease, asthma, and a host of troubling emotions and moods swings. A woman can be puzzled, frustrated, even embarrassed when she reveals symptoms that have plagued her for years. She may have shared these self-observations with doctors only to find that they were not worthy of an acknowledgement or comforting comment from her physician. Any attempt on her part to connect the birth of one of her children with those symptoms may have been met with skepticism or passed over. Yet, she can’t shake the feeling that something about that particular birth began her health decline.
Her observations do have validity and merit. What most mainstream medical practitioners don’t fully take into consideration is that a baby’s body is formed and made entirely of nutrients donated by the mother’s body. Her child’s brain, eyes, muscles, bones, organs, glands, nerves, skin, tissues and fluids are completely comprised of the nutrients taken from its mother’s bloodstream via the placenta.
If there is a lack of vital nutrients, the mother’s body is the first one that is deprived because her developing baby is Mother Nature’s priority. All mothers need to consciously replenish their lost nutritional and energetic reserves during the postpartum period. If this isn’t done, they might end up spending the rest of their lives wondering why they “just haven’t felt the same since the baby was born.”
The energy demands of caring for a newborn can further drain and deplete the mother’s nutrient reserves, especially if she is breastfeeding and sleep-deprived. If a woman has lost a great deal of blood while birthing her baby, the need for replenishing the nutritional components of blood is even more critical. Women who undergo Cesarean section also need to restore nutrient reserves; not only have they become mothers, they have had to have major surgery in the process. Women who lose a good deal of blood during the birth process and who don’t replenish key nutrients might experience light-headedness and throbbing headaches, along with extreme fatigue, sleeplessness, anxiety, and depression.
A new mother is also faced with the stress of integrating the intense needs of a new baby into her lifestyle while tending to her mate and perhaps other children and returning to work. All of these responsibilities that women – and those who are cared for by them – have taken for granted for millennia demand high-quality nutrients. Our food supply presently contains only half the nutrients that food contained in the 1940s due to the nutrient depletions in our soil. This fact makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for a mother to fully replenish the nutrient reserves her body donated to make her baby’s body solely from the food she eats. Eating highly refined and processed “junk” foods further depletes vital nutrients, which deepens the need to replenish postnatal nutrients even more.
Every physiologic process in the human body depends upon nutrients. The most important time to consciously replenish postpartum nutrient reserves begins immediately after giving birth and extends to 24 months postpartum. The failure to do this often sets the stage for chronic health problems that may last for decades.
There was a time that women throughout the globe would be given their placenta in some edible form to consume directly postpartum, much like dogs and cats do instinctively. The placenta contains highly concentrated amounts of the nutrients and hormones that the mother has lost through giving birth. The fact that eating one’s placenta is now culturally distasteful further supports the need to make a concerted effort to consume the appropriate nutrients and nourishing foods necessary for rebuilding and replenishing the new mother’s donated nutrient reserves. A high potency postnatal nutrient program is now essential to help a postpartum woman replenish her nutrient reserves.
Presently, about 30 million Americans take anti-depressant drugs. The majority of these are postpartum women! Many doctors prescribe Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and a host of other anti-depressant drugs before considering whether the mother’s depression, fatigue, or lethargy might be caused by postpartum nutrient depletion. The neurotransmitters serotonin, GABA, epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, acetylcholine and all others are made in the body from nutrients. Postpartum nutritional depletion can cause a physiological depression that is far too often misdiagnosed as a mental/emotional depression. This is a medical short-sightedness that needs to change so that postpartum women will receive better care. A postnatal nutrient recovery program should be the very first thing a doctor thinks of and prescribes for postpartum women presenting these symptoms; especially with women who have no history of depression, anxiety, or fatigue prior to giving birth.
Even if one does truly need the assistance of antidepressant drugs, these drugs contain no nutrients, so the need to replenish nutrient reserves still exists and should be addressed to prevent other health problems. It is fine to take AfterBaby Boost postnatal nutritional program and an antidepressant medication simultaneously. The need for high potency postnatal nutrients is greater now than ever before because the pace of life keeps getting faster, more complex and stressful.
Omega-3 oils are robbed from the mother’s body at a very high rate via the placenta to help form her baby’s brain, eyes, nerves, and cellular membranes. Breast feeding robs even more Omega 3 oils from a postpartum woman’s body because it is removed from her body to form the milk her body is producing. Many studies show the importance of Omega 3 oils to relieve depression, dry skin, thin hair and nails, fatigue and prevent heart disease in postpartum women. Omega 3 oils are an essential ingredient in a good postnatal nutrient program to assist a mother to replenish her nutrient reserves.
All the major nutrients are taken from mother’s body to help form baby’s body. Alpha Lipoic Acid and coenzyme Q10 are essential for the body to make energy. Without enough of these two essential nutrients the energy producing mitochondria in our cells will often make only 2 units of ATP (cellular energy) instead of 39 units of ATP per cycle. These two deficiencies are major causes of postpartum fatigue and mood swings. These two nutrients along with B vitamins, minerals including calcium and magnesium are also essential nutrients to help a mother replenish her postpartum nutrient reserves and should be included in a good postnatal nutrient formula. The postnatal nutrient program offered contains these essential nutrients in very high quality form.
Postpartum mothers require a nutritious diet, adequate sleep, moderate exercise and a high quality postnatal nutrient program. Prenatal vitamins do not adequately supply all of the nutrients that new mothers require after bringing new life into this world. A high quality postnatal nutrient program should be an integral part of the pregnancy recovery program required for all postpartum women to replenish their nutrient reserves. This can assist new mothers to not only regain their health and prevent later health problems, but also to allow her the best chance of happily raising her family and having other healthy pregnancies and healthy children if desired.
Dr. Dean Raffelock is the lead author of A NATURAL GUIDE TO PREGNANCY AND POSTPARTUM HEALTH published by Avery, Putnam, Penguin in 2003. His website is pregnancyrecovery.com. Dr. Raffelock has taught research based clinical nutrition for numerous medical organizations over many years, formulates nutritional products for a number of nutritional companies (including Sound Formulas-the makers of After Baby Boost), and has a holistic practice in Boulder, Colorado