Nowadays, the number of patients with postpartum depression has increased dramatically, but society does not pay attention to it. Most people think that this is just a special reaction at a special stage. Some even think that this is an emotion, a kind of "work", and it will get better after a while. In fact, after the birth of the child, the resources and energy of the whole family are concentrated on the baby, and the physical and mental care of the mother is really neglected. This has nothing to do with family conditions, even those rich families who can spend millions of months in confinement can't escape the torture of postpartum depression.
Liu Xuan, former captain of the national women's gymnastics team and Olympic champion, is almost a grand slam in gymnastics. She has won numerous world championships and cultivated good psychological quality since she was a child, but she is still helpless in the face of severe physical and mental changes after childbirth.
So what is postpartum depression?
Postpartum depression defined by western medicine refers to depression caused by physiological and psychological factors, which is common during confinement after giving birth to a child. Symptoms mainly include nervousness, doubt, guilt and fear. Some pregnant women with severe symptoms will have extreme thoughts or behaviors such as despair, running away from home, hurting their children or committing suicide.
Since it belongs to the category of depression, it can only be a disease with unknown etiology for western medicine. They think it may be caused by endocrine factors, genetic factors, obstetric factors, physical diseases and social psychological factors. Because of this, there is no unified judgment standard for the diagnosis of postpartum depression in foreign medicine. At present, screening scale is generally used for screening diagnosis, that is, to judge whether the patient is postpartum depression.
It can be seen that the judgment of foreign medicine on postpartum depression is completely subjective. To put it bluntly, it is to do a depression by doing problems. However, once diagnosed with postpartum depression, they will be required to take drugs. At present, the mainstream antidepressants for postpartum depression include selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), tricyclic antidepressants, tetracyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase antidepressants. Among them, SSRIs is the first-line treatment of postpartum depression, and the representative drugs are fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine, citalopram and so on.
Antidepressants have huge side effects. Long-term use of antidepressants will lead to extreme sleep state (either insomnia or lethargy), body edema, weight gain, gradual weakening of the effect of taking the same dose, nausea and diarrhea, sudden headache or trembling, mental retardation, recurrence as soon as the drug is stopped and many other sequelae. It is precisely because of the drug resistance of antidepressants that long-term use of the same drug requires an increase in dosage, and the effect is getting worse and worse, so new antidepressants have emerged one after another in recent years. Taking antidepressants for a long time will make patients feel great inferiority complex and make their mental world completely disordered. Further development may lead to anxiety, mania, bipolar disorder, even auditory hallucinations and hallucinations, which may lead to schizophrenia, and behavior may also rise from self-harm to endangering the lives of people around.
This year, there are two shocking news. A pregnant woman in Yunnan has hallucinations. When breastfeeding at night, her one-month-old son was picked up from the bed and strangled. After that, she threw the child to the ground several times and stepped on her with her feet. The baby died unfortunately on the way to the hospital. This "crazy" mother was also sentenced to 10 years in the first instance. A woman in Henan suffers from postpartum depression. During the onset, she pushed her niece and nephew into the river with a chain and drowned, and was finally sentenced to a suspended death. Women's postpartum emotional problems are potentially harmful. Once neglected or treated improperly, it will have very serious consequences, not only affecting individuals and families, but also seriously endangering society.
Traditional Chinese medicine classifies postpartum depression as "depression" because women lose too much blood after delivery, lack practical work, blood does not nourish the liver, and the liver loses softness, so the liver is depressed and blood deficiency, and the liver does not hide the soul, so it will be fascinated; Then, due to the cold during childbirth, the cold coagulation and blood stasis stop, and the qi deficiency and blood circulation are not smooth, which leads to the stagnation of cold coagulation and blood stasis, which will lead to the disorder of qi. Qi stagnation turns into fire and heat depression, which leads to depression, anxiety, insomnia, dry mouth and bitter taste.
The consumption of human qi and blood in the process of female production is enormous. Traditional natural delivery needs to open the uterus, and the child gives birth through the birth canal, which is the most vulnerable to cold evil. However, after delivery, the human body is deficient in qi and blood, and water is discharged through pores, which leads to postpartum sweating and pore opening. At this time, it is also vulnerable to wind evil and cold evil. If puerperal disease is caused by pathogenic factors, it will block the operation of qi and blood and lay a hidden danger for various gynecological diseases after long-term exposure to cold, dampness and heat. This is also the fundamental reason why China people have attached great importance to confinement for thousands of years. It is precisely because the confinement of China people is well regulated. In ancient times with low material conditions, as long as women can pass the death gate of childbearing and sit on confinement, it is easy to "marry and have children", making the average life expectancy of women in ancient China remain the first in the world.
It seems that the probability of dystocia has decreased since foreign medicine brought caesarean section and other means of assisting pregnancy and midwifery. However, many modern women choose caesarean section because of other factors, such as fitness and fear of pain during childbirth. The direct harm to the body and the cold injury caused by injection and infusion are 100 times that of natural childbirth. At present, the caesarean section rate in China is the highest in the world, and more than 46% of pregnant women choose caesarean section. You know, the warning line set by the World Health Organization for caesarean section rate is 15%. A number of studies by many authoritative organizations at home and abroad show that the probability of postpartum depression in caesarean section women is higher than that in natural delivery women 15%. In recent years, the government has carried out administrative intervention, but this can only curb the trend of caesarean section for all. However, the conflict between eastern and western medical and health concepts has to arouse the reflection of all China people. You know, postpartum depression is just the tip of the iceberg of the sharp increase in contemporary gynecological diseases.
Dr. Chang Lixue simply divides postpartum depression into three categories:
One is cold and blood stasis. That is, the cold blocks the muscle surface and blocks the heart pulse. Postpartum patients with yang deficiency, and because of taking care of children, fatigue and gas consumption, lead to qi deficiency can not transport blood, cold meridians closed in the heart, God will be abnormal. The patient's body will have symptoms of yang deficiency, such as yin cold, cold limbs, cold stomachache, fear of cold, insomnia and dreaminess, which will affect the patient's psychological fluctuation and produce pessimism. The solution of traditional Chinese medicine is mainly to dispel cold, dredge heart yang, dispel cold on muscle surface, and then promote blood circulation to remove blood stasis, which has the effect of calming the nerves;
The second is qi depression. Because of stagnation of liver-qi, stagnation of qi and blood stasis, stagnation of liver-qi or disharmony between spleen and stomach, and poor qi movement, it leads to symptoms of upset, anxiety and depression, and has no interest in life. Such symptoms are often accompanied by chest pain, abdominal distension, loss of appetite, cold and guilty conscience, fidgeting and so on. It can be treated by soothing the liver and regulating qi and regulating the spleen and stomach.
The third category is mental inadequacy. The main reason is that the patient is deficient in both heart and spleen after delivery, unable to defend internally, and vulnerable to external evils. Cold information (or dark matter) from the outside invades the human body, which will also lead to mental disorder and ecstasy of lying-in women. Such patients often learn from doctors through psychological counseling and guidance, and can return to normal after several courses of treatment. This therapy is different from modern psychology. The specific method is a series of operation methods to eliminate exogenous pathogens by guiding healthy qi into patients.
Postpartum depression is not an incurable disease of TCM, and it can be restored to health through TCM conditioning. There is absolutely no need for everyone to label themselves and guide themselves into the field of medical mental illness. As long as it is nursed back to health according to the doctor's advice, with a healthy life, diet, work and rest and exercise, getting out of the haze of postpartum depression is just a flick of a finger. Of course, the support and care of family members, especially husbands, is also essential. While taking care of the children after delivery, the family should also be considerate and actively coordinate the relationship between the mother and other family members. Only when the baby mother is physically and mentally healthy first can the happiness of the family last for a long time.