Hope for the darkest of nights
Postpartum depression is real, and effects many millions of women. You don’t have to be a first time mom to feel left to navigate all the feelings of overwhelm, inexplicable sadness, tears, frustration and loss of motivation. You’re not alone, but knowing that fact is not enough to get most people through it. Counseling may be helpful, and of course you could always resort to medication. But many mothers don’t want to medicate themselves, don’t have the resources for weeks of counseling, or perhaps don’t realize there is a real problem to address. Some feel they would rather just fight through it, or think it’s normal to feel trapped, alone, or slightly crazy. Whatever boat you find yourself in, know that there is help with homeopathy. This gentle medicine which stimulates your body to get over the hump that it’s stuck on in the road to healing, is safe, gentle, easy to take, and can make a WORLD of difference in your mental and emotional transitions after giving birth and beyond.
But this is a post covering not only post partum blues, but also the other end of this pregnancy spectrum. Miscarriage. Losing a baby. The excitement, build up, anticipation of a new pregnancy comes to a screeching halt the moment you realize the little life you carried is no longer there. The physical and hormonal changes your body has begun to experience leave you in a lurch as your emotions and thoughts go through a labyrinth that seems impossible to get through on your own.
“The excitement, build up, anticipation of a new pregnancy come to a screeching halt the moment you realize the little life inside you is not longer there”
Homeopathy has much to offer the millions of women who are effected by both postpartum depression as well as the grief and loss of miscarriage and the depression that accompanies it. The important thing to consider is that your body doesn’t need anything “blocked” it doesn’t need symptoms to be masked, it needs to work through the actual grief, it needs to balance in the midst of overwhelm, sleepless nights and learning a new normal. We need to support the body, mind and emotions through these monumental events in our lives and homeopathy can help to do that. I’ve had the opportunity to see homeopathy work beautifully and quickly alongside women as they process these life changing experiences. Let me share with you two stories, one on each end of the pregnancy spectrum.
Trish came to me looking for help for postpartum depression which she was beginning to be very concerned about. She had a beautiful natural birth experience that couldn’t have gone any smoother. Her baby was healthy and she and her husband were over the moon in love with their little one. However, these new parents were not immune to the struggles that come from introducing a newborn baby into their lives. There were many tears in the first week for both mom and dad, and baby too. The anxiety a first time mom can endure is often overwhelming in the midst of major physical healing, milk production, and overall adjustment. This is to be expected. But even after Trish became accustomed to feeding her little one, changing diapers, taking time for a shower every so often, and being on her own when her husband went back to work, a dark cloud seemed to settle over her.
She described to me the slump she had found herself unable to get out of. She would completely lose track of time during her day, staring out the window as she nursed her baby, she would “zone out” and felt unconnected to the baby at her breast. She felt she was just doing the essentials to keep the baby alive and well cared for, but her emotion seemed to have left her. Along with those feelings came guilt; she felt she had no reason at all to feel this way. What troubled her the most though, were the unwanted thoughts, almost like visions, she said, that flashed before her mind’s eye late at night during nursing sessions. She would see flashes of herself laying on the ground, dead, and she knew she had committed suicide. Sometimes she would see her husband bent over her, distraught and left alone to raise the baby.
Needless to say these visions were quite disturbing to her. She said that she wasn’t suicidal, she didn’t think about killing herself, but the visions came anyway. She was feeling isolated and alone, and had no desire to be with people, or go out of the house, even in the nice weather. She was used to being very ambitious, always busy and a take-charge kind of person. Now, however, she was feeling quite the opposite of all of that.
I am so glad that she reached out to me. Having had her as a patient in the past, I knew a bit about her already and because she had had such amazing results from homeopathy before, she knew that this was the first thing she should try. Within just one dose of the remedy I gave her, the visions stopped and she had more restful sleep. The cloud began to lift, and she began getting out of the house more and enjoying the company of others. She began to initiate getting together with others! This was a HUGE turn around and she began to feel more like her capable and ambitious self, enjoying her baby and her life.
Loss of Life, Loss of Self
Beth reached out to me for help after a miscarriage that had left her feeling dull, uninterested in everything and on the verge of tears almost all the time. Her life is a full one with a few other children to care for and lots of care taking of others. She had a bit of a breakdown a couple days earlier after a woman was rude to her while she took a walk with her kids. “It wasn’t anything major” she said, “but it just welled up inside me and I came home and sobbed in the bathroom for 20 minutes.” She had no desire to carry on with her day-to-day responsibilities, didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning, and didn’t even have much of an appetite. Nothing seemed to interest her, keeping busy is normally her main form of stress relief but she had no energy to do anything, and felt like she was slipping into a hole and didn’t even care to try to save herself. Her call for help came simply from an intellectual decision, knowing that her body could use some homeopathic help.
“She had no desire to carry on with her day-to-day responsibilities, didn’t want to get out of bed in the morning, and didn’t even have much of an appetite.”
One dose of the right remedy in a high potency is all it took. She followed the advice to take some time for herself and took a bath while the kids were treated to some TV time. As the remedy supported her, the emotions flowed and she did a fair bit of crying. But as she described it, the tears and emotion felt different, she felt as though something was releasing inside her. Through the rest of the day she began to sense a slow shift. By the next morning she felt as though a weight had lifted from inside of her, she felt “lighter, and more awake”. She also described feeling motivated in her day. She only needed one small pellet in her mouth that first day, and continued to reap the benefit going forward.
I hope that these two real life examples I have witnessed up close and personal will give you a reason to reach out and make an appointment with me if you are struggling with any emotional challenges of any kind, and of course postpartum depression or the grief of losing a precious life. There is a light that can dawn for you in your darkness.
