Tag: postpartum depression

Many years ago, I was pregnant, single and alone. I gave birth in a foreign country, and never saw my baby. I had no emotional support. Several years later, I was happily married, and we got pregnant. I gave birth with a supportive husband, but away from extended family and friends. We had no emotional support. These contrasting, yet similar, experiences motivate me to offer comfort, encouragement and guidance to new families. There are, however, major gaps in helping new families in our communities.

When you have a cold, the guy who sits next to you at work says, "Hey, you sound better."

If you recently had a baby, your neighbor smiles and asks, "Are you getting any sleep, yet?"

If your mom's chemo has ended, your friends want to know, "What did the doctors say? How's she doing?"

But what if you've spent the last three or four months struggling with getting out of bed?

Physical activity during and after pregnancy improves psychological wellbeing and may protect against postpartum depression, according to a new analysis of existing research.

Even low-intensity exercise, such as walking with a baby stroller, was linked to a lower likelihood of depressive symptoms in new mothers, researchers found.

"The negative consequences of postpartum depression not only affect the mother but also the child, who can suffer poor emotional and cognitive development," said study co-author Celia Alvarez-Bueno of the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Cuenca, Spain.

Still shunning alcohol because she was breastfeeding her 7-week-old baby, Jessica Hopkins grabbed a 50-pound (23 kg) beer keg with her bare hands and hurled it over a chest-high metal bar.

Women like Hopkins, a former jewelry design assistant, are the fastest-growing group of competitors in Strongman, a sport that involves chucking, dragging and hefting tremendously heavy weights. Events include single-handedly pulling a 23-ton (21-metric-ton) fire truck across a parking lot or heaving a 200-pound fire hydrant onto a shoulder-high platform.