When you protect the baby becomes an obsession
Many new mothers feel a little anxious to care for their babies. But sometimes, that concern becomes an obsession for all things that can go wrong.
Experts call this obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) postpartum. Can lead women to take extreme measures to prevent their fears come true, as repeatedly wash your baby to keep germs at bay, to the point where the baby develops skin sores, or refuse to carry the baby for fear that to drop. Although postpartum depression gets much more attention, postpartum OCD can also be harmful to mother and child, Kiara said Timpano, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Miami in Florida.
“Want to protect children and keep it safe is a very normal upbringing,” Timpano said. “The thing about OCD is that natural surveillance is exacerbated in excess. Mothers not only OCD worry excessively, but the anxious thoughts while trying to control them with rituals or repetitive behaviors,” Timpano said.
“For example, a mother can be overwhelmed by thoughts of your baby get sick from germs, and could respond washing bottles for hours,” he said. “These symptoms may begin to take over the life of an individual very quickly.”
About one in every hundred adults have OCD, Timpano said. Get a solid estimate of how many new mothers experience postpartum OCD is difficult, but researchers noted that the figure varies between two and nine percent, with symptoms of mild to severe.
It is not known what causes OCD, but women who have had anxiety disorders or OCD before giving birth are more vulnerable, Timpano said. Having a baby is a huge huge life transition accompanied by physiological and hormonal changes, which could contribute. To see if you can prevent postpartum OCD, Timpano and colleagues recruited 71 mothers who reported significant anxiety before delivery, but not an anxiety disorder.
The mothers were enrolled in a regular classroom delivery, or in a class that taught the warning signs of OCD and techniques to cope with symptoms. They were followed one, three and six months after birth. Mothers in the intervention class had less anxiety and develop better coping skills to manage their “obsessive thoughts” that mothers in the regular classroom, the study published online in advance of the print edition of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
What separates the women vulnerable to OCD are those that do not include certain ways of thinking about things, said Eric Storch, an associate professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of South Florida, has studied the postpartum OCD.
For example, many mothers might have disturbing thoughts, such as a fear of accidentally choking baby while bathing. But for mothers with OCD, rather than a passing thought to be discarded and forgotten quickly, the thought occurs again and again in their minds, until they begin to fear that it might actually said Storch.
So postpartum OCD is sometimes confused with postpartum psychosis, a severe form of depression in the mother may experience hallucinations and are at risk of harming your baby, Storch said. Mothers with postpartum OCD pose little risk of harming their babies, he said.
“There are cases where women are hospitalized psychotic because a doctor is concerned that will hurt their children when mothers may postpartum OCD are the least likely to harm their children,” said Storch.
OCD can be difficult to treat, although cognitive behavioral therapy, which teaches people ways to manage and change their troubling thoughts, can help. Some women also have postpartum depression along with OCD, and antidepressants may also relieve symptoms, Timpano said. Both experts concur that we must do more to identify women suffering from postpartum OCD.
“Depression and psychosis have attracted the most attention, with good reasons,” said Storch. “But there are a large number of women who experience an increase in obsessive-compulsive symptoms immediately after birth.”
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