PND higher at 3-4 years than newborn, new study says

[BertieBotts]

I saw this on a facebook page and thought it was worth discussing.

www.yummymummyclub.ca/blogs/andrea-nair-connect-four-parenting/20141020/study-postpartum-depression-lasts-longer-than-you

The article talks about a new study which shows that symptoms of postnatal depression are highest in mothers of 3-4 year olds, much higher than they are in mothers of babies under a year old. (The study doesn't go any higher than 4 years).

I wondered what others thought about this? I related to it really strongly, I loved the earlier months and first 2-3 years with my DS but struggled so much with ages 3 and 4. It got a bit better at 5 and now he is 6 I feel like I'm doing much better and enjoying it again at last but that 3-4 year period was so awful for me. I've never read anything which links it to PND before, and I always assumed that I couldn't have had PND because I was perfectly happy when DS was a baby. I wonder now if I'd known that it could have been PND related whether I would have sought help and been more available to my DS as a result.

PND is such a tricky one.
There's so many factors that can be involved.

For me, it was mostly hormonal coupled with severe sleep deprivation. Antidepressants didn't cure it, hormonal treatment and time did.

Newborns can throw mums off kilter with the postnatal hormone crash. Some just don't sleep. Some dads are useless. Those things add up to Armageddon for new mums.

I actually think that study has left out one crucial factor.... Many mums have had another baby by the 3-4 year stage and that's the tipping point for them.

I did wonder about that too. I only have one child but his behaviour took a very sudden change at 3 years old. Of course for most families this is exactly the time that the second child is born or becomes more mobile so the behaviour change gets attributed to/is worsened by that.