Health Topics A-Z

What Are the Symptoms?

There are many possible symptoms of postpartum depression, including the following:

• Inability to sleep or sleeping a lot, even when the baby is awake.
• Change in appetite.
• Extreme concern and worry about the baby or a lack of interest or feelings for the baby.
• Feeling unable to love the baby or your family.
• Anger toward the baby, your partner, or other family members.
• Anxiety or panic attacks.
• Fear of harming your baby. These thoughts may be obsessive, and you may be afraid to be left alone in the house with your baby.
• Irritability.
• Sadness or excessive crying.
• Difficulty concentrating or remembering.
• Feelings of doubt, guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, or restlessness.
• Lethargy or extreme fatigue.
• Loss of interest in hobbies or other usual activities.
• Mood swings.
• Feeling emotionally numb.
• Numbness or tingling in your arms or legs.
• Hyperventilating.
• Frequent calls to the pediatrician with an inability to be reassured.
• Recurrent thoughts of death, which may include thinking about or even planning suicide.
• Obsessive-compulsive features, including intrusive, repetitive thoughts and anxiety
• Exaggerated highs and lows

Call Your Doctor If:

• You have hallucinations and delusions about yourself or your baby. This is an emergency.
• You have thoughts about hurting yourself or your baby.
• You have symptoms or signs of depression that have lasted longer than two weeks after childbirth or that began within two months of giving birth.