Postpartum DepressionWritten by Rexanne Mancini
The case against Andrea Yates, accused of drowning her five young children, is disturbing and horrible. Despite what you may think of Andrea Yates or tragic circumstances surrounding death of her children, her postpartum depression (PPD) defense will either serve to enlighten more people to devastating affects of PPD or throw study of this very real mental illness into dark ages. While many doctors and psychologists have made great strides in understanding PPD and helping its victims, these same doctors and mental health professionals worry that bad publicity and ridicule could destroy PPD’s credibility and their efforts at gaining more funding and study of this disease. For some women, PPD can be a nightmare. While her family and friends expect her to be joyous and elated over birth of her child, a woman can be sinking into darkest corners of despair, unable to cope with an infant, biological changes surging through her body and severe depression overwhelming her brain. As joyously anticipated as birth of her baby was, a postpartum woman can become riddled with severe anxiety over her ability to care for her newborn, her self-esteem can plummet and her brain’s chemical changes can produce intolerable levels of panic. This is no one’s “fault.” It is a condition that can strike even ordinarily soundest individual.
| | Security ItemsWritten by Rexanne Mancini
My older daughter sucked her thumb. She did so until she was six. My younger daughter had a love affair with her bottles and pacifiers until she was six. Both girls gave up their security rituals on their own, in their own time and when they were ready to give them up. This is not to say that it didn't distress me to see their teeth protruding and to know that orthodontic bills loomed large in our future. I just couldn't do it to them ... couldn't take away something that was so important to their feelings of security and their self-enforced methods of soothing savage. I think, of three horrors above, bottle was worst. I did take bottles away from my older daughter when she was three. It wasn't so traumatic. She wanted a bottle for a few nights but knew she had to give them up for sake of her teeth and complied. My younger daughter absolutely refused to give bottle boot from her life until only recently. Her two front permanent teeth, which had come in early, were turning gray. As soon as she stopped drinking a nightly bottle, her teeth began to whiten on their own. Mind you, I did not force her to give up dreaded baba. She decided, out of blue, to give it up on her own. A few nights of tears and trauma later, she had overcome her habit and was on her way to falling asleep with only a few dozen pacifiers littering her bed. Shortly thereafter, pacifiers were history, too. Since decision was hers, I didn't feel guilt over refusing her request to change her mind. Know this parents ... your kids are not going to start high school sucking on their thumbs, a pacifier or bottle. They might still have a shred of their old security blanket, a severely damaged favorite stuffed toy or a doll that has seen better side of new but they will move on and grow up without these babyish soothers. Kids have a need to ensure some control over their powerless environment. Think about how little say they have in anything that happens to or for them. They're subjected to painful shots as infants and toddlers (among countless other horrors) that they no more understand than you and I understand genocidal murder and torture in third world countries. They have a little mastery over soothing themselves with a pacifier, a bottle or their thumb and then, bam! They're forced to give up something that comforts them. We can justify this by arguing that it's for their own good. Yes, it is, but there are many restrictions and limitations we plant on them that are a lot more important than taking away a relatively harmless habit.
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