The majority of people perceive postpartum depression as an illness that affects just the new mother. Unfortunately, this is not true. The entire family faces relationship changes that alter family interactions drastically. Depressed mothers who do not seek help often put their infants at risk for severe or deadly setbacks in growth and development.

The medical name for this complicated problem is nonorganic failure to thrive. Nonorganic means that no physical cause for the baby’s delays exists. Because of the mom’s postpartum depression, she often stops meeting the infant’s nutritional and psychological requirements. Although the baby may cry out in hunger at first, he or she often loses interest and quits relating to other people. This condition can cause malnutrition, starvation, and even death. 

Doctors use developmental charts to follow a baby's physical growth with respect to height, weight, and head size. If the baby is in good health at birth, his or her size will be within the normal values on the growth charts. If the baby starts to have severe developmental delays, this will appear when comparing his or her progress with normal ranges. Once the baby's progress is lower than the fifth percentile, doctors become seriously concerned.

Other symptoms often appear before the baby's growth problems reach this crisis stage. Most infants who develop normally are curious about their environment. In contrast, infants who do not thrive have little or no curiosity about their surroundings. These babies typically do not make noise or words; they have quit attempting to respond to their caretakers.

How much of a problem is failure to thrive? If untreated, the baby can starve, and even die. Even if the baby grows enough to remain alive, his or her muscles, lungs, and brain cannot develop properly. Furthermore, even if they are treated, these babies do not "catch up" entirely. They often acquire social problems or eating disorders, even after they begin to have their needs met. 

Babies who failure to thrive often become critically ill from starvation. They usually are hospitalized for several weeks at a time. In some cases, they get so weak that taking a bottle is too tiring. They receive nutrition via a tube placed in their stomachs, or even in a vein to receive food!

The most tragic component of failure to thrive is that it can be easily prevented. If mothers who have postpartum depression identify their depression at its onset, they are able to seek help and do not have to subject their fragile babies to these horrific dangers. Indeed, research has demonstrated that nine-tenths of the women suffering from depression and seek help will find healing!

Numerous approaches are used to treat postpartum depression. Some doctors use medicines, such as antidepressants. These medicines are expensive. Nursing mothers should also avoid them. Moreover, antidepressants sometimes cause suicidal thoughts; these medicines should be prescribed with extreme caution.

Usually, doctors encourage psychotherapy instead of or in addition to medicines. Counseling, however, can be expensive. Additionally, it often requires a lot of extra time, and many weeks may go by before this treatment begins to help. Unfortunately, if the woman’s depression is severe, this may be too long for her baby. If the baby begins to experience growth delays, extra treatment may be needed. 

Luckily, other non-drug therapy approaches are available. Two revolutionary, beneficial methods that typically offer positive outcomes much more quickly than psychotherapy, and are not nearly as dangerous as drugs, are Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and hypnosis for depression. These two approaches typically start to help after only one treatment. In addition, they cost much less than other methods.

Mothers who think they might have postpartum depression need to seek help immediately so that their infants do not develop dangerous growth problems. The severity of the consequences for the baby demands that any approach work quickly, and have a high rate of effectiveness. NLP and hypnosis for depression cost little, begin to work almost immediately, and are highly effective. Therefore, both of these treatments are perfect for treating postpartum depression.

Summary: Postpartum depression is depression that occurs after the birth of a child. New moms cannot give their babies the attention they must have to live and grow. This causes failure to thrive, a severe, potentially deadly condition, which hurts the infant. Moms who think they have postpartum depression need to seek help immediately. Hypnotherapy and NLP for depression cost little and are extremely effective.

Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in depression and stress related symptoms as a certified hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. During his 31-year career he's helped thousands of clients. He offers CDs for self hypnosis anxiety depression. Visit his Best hypnosis MP3 downloads site for the hypnosis article repository, or watch his free video hypnosis collection.

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