When we talk about postpartum depression, we usually refer to the one presented by mothers after childbirth and which occurs more frequently than we imagine. But recent studies have found that it is possible for parents to also experience this type of depression after having children.
And it has become something more frequent every day, so much so, that according to a recent study, the percentage of parents suffering from postpartum depression is almost the same as the number of mothers who suffer from it.
Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, this study analyzed the frequency with which the parents presented depression, during the pediatric visits of their babies during the first 15 months after delivery.
At the time of taking their babies to consultation, which were a total of 9,572 and to which the parents went on 2,946 occasions, both parents filled out a form in which they were asked about symptoms of postpartum depression.
It was found that 4.4% of parents who went to these medical follow-ups after childbirth experienced depression. According to the information published, in previous studies, it was found that in the case of mothers, this occurred in 5% of them, which makes the figure of the parents a very similar one.
And why do parents experience postpartum depression? Although it may not seem so or not so obvious, they also go through a process of total transformation, and it has been found that fatherhood changes the brains of men, and that in addition, experience changes at the biological level, such as alterations in the level of testosterone, which would lead to depression.
The results of this study once again show the importance of not only taking care of the baby during post-partum medical check-ups, but also follow up on the physical and emotional health of both parents, because one or both suffer from depression, can greatly affect the development of their children.
