On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten wrote:
> Physical recovery is rather hard on the female body. Especially if she
> needs to feed the child as well. But I'm actually more interested in
> the state of mind that can cause depression. After returning home I
> had the feeling that I could rip out trees, but when I set to my tasks
> I actually found out that I'm physically not really very capable of
> doing all I need to do. So this might warrent the basis for feelings
> of depression especially if the cultural background states that
> western women are wimps indeed. But is it culturally determined or
> just something we do to ourselves. Like the idea that women have to be
> slim and always good looking....
A few days before my mom left, she asked what my tiredness at that point
was from -- the labor & delivery, or just the lack of sleep and the
lactating. At that point, I think it was all lack of sleep and lactating.
(And I've heard all about pregnancy cravings, but nobody warned me about
any cravings while lactating. My diet preferences made a couple of major
changes since Sam was born.)
Oh, and the day I came home from the hospital, I was proud and impressed
that I managed to shower and wash my hair without Dan having to help. He
hovered in the bathroom the whole time, just in case, but we were both
pleased at how well I managed to stand for that long at that point.
As for slim & good looking -- I think I still look pretty good, but slim
is a few months off. (I have no idea just how much I weigh right now, but
it's certainly more than I weighed before I got pregnant. I guess I'll
find out for sure next Friday, when I go to the doctor.)
And on the depression -- a great many women experience a mild
depression-like state for a few days starting some time in the first week
after the baby is born, and that goes away. The minority of women
actually end up with real depression. I don't think I really hit the mild
one, even. I credit Dan with a lot of that -- he was really upbeat and
optimistic about everything for the first few days, and was a great help
from the moment I told him my water had broken (well, OK, there was a
space of about 2 minutes when he wasn't quite a great help at first) until
around 5 this morning when he brought Sammy up for me to feed and said
that he really needed to sleep, and could I handle everything for the rest
of the night? (He'd slept all of 10 minutes, partly due to working on
something for his job until 3AM. Poor guy.)
Julia
