Renoir, Feeding, courtesy of ProMom's Breastfeeding Gallery

For a long time after our third baby's birth, I was really afraid of getting pregnant again, not because I feared childbirth (far from it!), but because I dreaded going through another round of postpartum depression.

Then I became pregnant with our fourth baby, our little surprise blessing.  And I realized that if God had seen fit to sovereignly bless my husband and me with this child, then He would also equip us with the knowledge and resources necessary to make the upcoming postpartum time PPD-free.  So, with a determined rather than a fearful outlook, I began to really research the causes and prevention of PPD.  I learned some very interesting things, primarily about nutritional support for postpartum depression, which you can read about by visiting the links at the end of my postpartum depression page.

I truly believe that by God's grace, I was able to successfully avoid a recurrence of PPD.  My husband and I worked as a team, combining spiritual/emotional, practical and nutritional support to help me get through those first months after the birth of our fourth baby.  The spiritual and emotional support came through praying and claiming the promises of scripture, praying and talking with my husband regularly, and receiving the prayer and encouragement of family and friends.  The practical support included delegating or sharing my household responsibilities so that I could get plenty of rest.  My husband and older kids helped with the laundry, dishes and other chores.  Friends brought us more than a weeks' worth of homemade meals, which, when added to the meals I'd prepared and frozen before the birth, meant nearly a month of easy dinners.  Friends also called to check on me and see how I was doing.  It was wonderful to not feel so isolated and to know that everyone was pulling for me.  As for the nutritional support, the day after our fourth baby's birth, I began a daily regimen of supplements that I had read were helpful in combatting PPD, including fish oil, chelated magnesium and vitamin B-12 along with my usual prenatal supplement. 

All those support measures helped me to feel quite well, with lots of energy (after the initial post-birth recovery) and not a bit of depression, until about three months postpartum.  At that time, things began to go downhill: I lost quantities of hair (a lot more than I had after any of our other babies) and became profoundly tired and draggy.  I often needed 1 or 2 naps a day, so I ended up napping when my baby did.  My short-term memory and word retrieval deteriorated markedly, my appetite faded, and my steady postpartum weight loss hit an uncharacteristic plateau.  Too, my periods resumed months sooner than they had with any of my other babies.  I had a feeling all this just might (!!) be hormonal, but since I didn't feel depressed or blue, just "slow", I kept putting off seeing the doctor.  Finally at about 7.5 months postpartum when I was starting to feel better, I did go see him.  My doctor ran some tests and found out I was borderline hypothyroid.  It turned out that I had been suffering from postpartum thyroiditis (PPT).  Once again I had been blindsided by a postpartum condition previously unknown to me.  I could either begin taking a thyroid supplement, or see if my thyroid would right itself on its own, which happens in most women who have this condition.  Since my symptoms had already begun to improve, I opted to take the "wait and see" approach, and fortunately, did get better in the following months.  I slowly recovered my memory and fluency of speech, began feeling more energetic again, and stopped needing daily naps.  And to my relief, my hair eventually grew back to its normal thickness. 

For me, postpartum thyroiditis was a strange and at times frustrating experience, but it was not nearly as distressing as PPD had been.  In some women, however, PPT can contribute to postpartum depression.  Maybe I'll write more about it someday, but for now, I've collected some good links below if you would like to learn more about this condition.