Maternity blues
Maternity blues, also known as baby blues and postpartum blues, is a transient condition that 75-80% of mothers could experience shortly after childbirth with a wide variety of symptoms which generally involve mood lability, tearfulness, and some mild anxiety and depressive symptoms. Baby blues is not postpartum depression, unless it is abnormally severe.After the placenta is delivered, the placental "hormone factory" shuts down causing radical changes in hormone levels, and the woman can suffer symptoms due to withdrawal from the high pregnancy levels of estrogen, progesterone and endorphins. Combined with this shift in hormone levels is the physical, mental and emotional exhaustion - as well as sleep deprivation typical of parenting a newborn. All of these factors contribute to the condition.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Treatment of postpartum depression can include individual or group psychotherapy, medication, and supportive interventions. A combination of individual psychotherapy (particularly cognitive therapy) and medication has been shown to be effective. There are no standard guidelines regarding medication therapy. The potential risk of infant exposure to small amounts of antidepressants in breast milk is unclear, so in each individual woman the risk of not taking antidepressants must be balanced against the risk of either not breastfeeding or potentially exposing the infant with continued breastfeeding. There is some reassuring data on the safety of SSRI antidepressants, and infants nursed by mothers taking SSRIS typically receive low levels of medication exposure.