When Does Postpartum Depression Start and What Are the Symptoms?

By Cindy Puppos | May 15, 2023

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According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), around one in seven women develop postpartum depression (PPD) after childbirth. This condition can affect your physical and mental health, as well as your ability to bond with your new baby.

Understanding the symptoms can help you recognize signs of PPD in yourself or a loved one. The earlier you identify this condition, the sooner you can seek professional help and support.

When does postpartum depression start? What are its most typical characteristics? Today, we're sharing all the answers you need to know.

What Is Postpartum Depression?

Postpartum depression is a medical condition that can affect women who have given birth to a baby.

While many women will experience short bouts of anxiety and sadness as they adjust to their new lifestyle, PPD is not the baby blues. Those feelings usually occur within the first two to five days after giving birth and dissipate within two weeks. Some of the symptoms of baby blues include:

• Feelings of crankiness
• Difficulty sleeping
• Compulsive crying

If you have feelings like this that last longer than two weeks, it's important to speak to your physician. Emotional distress that persists beyond the typical baby blues period could be PPD. This condition impacts a woman's day-to-day life on a longer, more significant basis.

When Does Postpartum Depression Start?

While PPD can occur any time after childbirth, the first symptoms normally appear around one to three weeks after delivery. Due to this timeline, it's considered a type of perinatal depression.

Perinatal depression is a broad term that encompasses conditions that occur either during pregnancy or within the first year after giving birth. 

While some women with PPD experience feelings of depression during pregnancy, others do not develop the condition until after they've given birth. If you've experienced PPD after one pregnancy, you're more likely to experience it again with a subsequent pregnancy. 

What Causes PPD?

Medical practitioners aren't exactly sure what causes PPD. There are multiple possible causes that could lead to the onset of this condition. These include genetics, hormonal changes, and low thyroid hormone levels.

Genetics

Genes are in your body's cells. They contain instructions that affect the way your body grows and works. Certain genes can be passed from one generation to the next.

Women with a family history of depression may be more likely to develop PPD than others.

Shifting Hormones

Hormones are chemicals that are located all throughout your body. Some of them control your mood and emotions. Women experience elevated levels of certain steroid hormones during pregnancy, including estrogen and progesterone.

Shortly after birth, however, those hormones go back to their normal levels. This rapid shift can cause some women to develop symptoms of PPD.

Low Thyroid Levels

Your thyroid is a gland in your neck. It helps your body obtain and use the energy you get from food. Some medical experts believe that thyroid hormone levels are lower in some women after giving birth and that this change can lead to PPD.

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Postpartum Depression?

The first few weeks after delivery can be a blur, in more ways than one. As you adjust to sharing your time, energy, and your body with a little one, it's natural to feel a little off-kilter.

As mentioned, you may feel extra emotional during that initial period. You're sleep-deprived, overwhelmed, and suddenly tasked with the extraordinary task of keeping your new addition healthy, happy, and well-fed. This can lead to feelings of confusion, frustration, and even sadness, despite your great love for your infant.

Women with PPD can exhibit both signs and symptoms of the condition.

Signs are physical cues that others can detect. For instance, if you have a cough or runny nose, others can tell you have a cold. On the other hand, symptoms are more personal and aren't always as obvious.

It's important to understand both the internal and external ways that this condition can manifest. Let's look at some of the most pronounced changes you may experience.

Emotional Changes

Emotional changes related to PPD affect the way you feel internally. To those closest to you, the shift might be apparent. However, it's common for women with this condition to mask these feelings, which can exacerbate them even more.

Some of the signs and symptoms to look out for include the following:

• Feeling depressed for most of the day, every day
• Feeling panicked and afraid most of the time
• Feeling guilt, shame, or a sense of failure
• Experiencing significant mood swings on a regular basis

Routine Changes

Routine changes are those that affect your everyday life. They impact how you go about your day and the activities you engage in. If you notice the following changes to the flow of your day, this could be a sign of PPD:

• Losing interest in the things you used to do
• Eating more or less than you typically do
• Gaining or losing weight
• Having difficulty concentrating, focusing, or making decisions
• Feeling too tired to engage in everyday activities
• Having difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much

Mental Changes

Mental changes are perhaps the most difficult for others to detect. A new mother can appear perfectly content on the outside but suffer from emotionally distressing thoughts on a near-constant basis.

The most common signs and symptoms include:

• Thinking about hurting your baby or yourself
• Experiencing difficulty bonding with your baby
• Thinking about suicide

If you have experienced these thoughts, or someone has confided in you that they have them, it's important to contact emergency services as soon as possible. There are medical resources and experts that can help you work through these symptoms. Common treatment options include medication, therapy, counseling, and medication-assisted treatment (MAT).

Seeking Help for Postpartum Depression

When does postpartum depression start? If you're still experiencing feelings of sadness or anxiety two weeks after giving birth, speak to someone about your experience.

From your prenatal care team to your primary care physician or mental health provider, there are experts who can direct you toward the treatment you need. You can even speak to your baby's pediatrician.

Recovery is possible and brighter days are ahead. At 1 Natural Way, we help moms get a breast pump and maternity wellness benefits through insurance. Set up an account, check out our educational resources for helpful guides, or reach out to our team at (888) 977-2229 to learn more. 

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