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.
Miscarriage and grief
Miscarriage has an emotional effect and can also lead to psychological disorders. One discorder that can develop is primary maternal preoccupation. This is defined as a " ...'special psychiatric condition' in which the pregnant woman identifies with her baby, highlights the crisis a woman faces when the baby with whom she is preoccupied and identified dies..." Grieving manifests itself differently for each woman after miscarriage. It may often go unrecognized. The grief that follows a miscarriage resembles, but is not the same as, the grief experienced after the loss of a family member. Disbelief, depression, anger, and yearning, are described as being a part of the normal grieving process. These reactions remain from three to nine months after the loss. Forty-one percent of parents experience a normal, expected decline in grief in the first two years while 59% were delayed in the resolution of their grief.