Dads and postpartum depression

Postpartum depression , in addition to influencing the attachment relationship between mother and child, can also compromise the couple’s relationship. Partners of women with postnatal depression are also more likely to develop a mood disorder.

Both from a preventive and treatment point of view, it is therefore important to involve dads who must be helped to understand what postpartum depression is in order to learn to grasp any danger signs and to learn to support their partner.

Fathers play a fundamental role as support and care and their presence and closeness significantly influence the recovery of the mother in difficulty.

It is therefore important to provide dads with useful information on the symptoms, causes and treatment of depression and give them the opportunity to talk about what they feel by allowing the processing of emotions.

Although it is women who suffer from the primary symptoms of postnatal depression, their partners can often be affected as well. Dads, who live next to depressed companions, must, in fact, face many stress factors due to the management of the situation, the mother’s need for support, caring for the child and work commitments . All these factors can bring out feelings of helplessness, guilt and anger, favoring the emergence of insecurity and uncertainty for the future.

Fathers who find themselves in a situation of this type must find the courage to speak openly with friends and family without refusing help from anyone. They must try to remain open to dialogue with others, to empathic contact by finding support in loved ones, keeping themselves active and open to life. Dads need to be aware of their own feelings of anger and frustration while always trying to be positive in the presence of their mother and showing confidence in the future.

Even in the absence of postpartum depression, the couple’s relationship with the birth of a child changes radically. The transition from couple to family can sometimes cause a sense of exclusion and loss in the father. Priorities change and tiredness plays a major role. The change experienced within the couple can bring discomfort and difficulty and to be faced the partners must learn to find spaces and times for duality by rediscovering adequate communication methods. Finding time to spend together to share feelings, emotions and thoughts allows you to strengthen the relationship and rediscover the intimacy that sometimes seems lost.

Adequate communication becomes even more important to intervene in cases of postpartum depression. The depressive state often makes communication difficult or even absent. Because of confused thoughts, low motivation and low self-esteem, mothers find it difficult to communicate to their partner how they really feel. On the other hand, partners may feel anger, confusion and fear at seeing their company feel bad.

To learn together to face changes, difficulties and challenges as a couple and as parents, especially in the presence of depressive states, it is necessary and vital to find new ways to be together, to share thoughts and moods by learning to communicate intimately, deep, effective and empathetic.