January-2006
Sleep after baby: is something wrong?
New mothers are inundated with questions about sleep. How many hours does the baby sleep? Is he sleeping through the night yet? Have you tried (insert allegedly helpful suggestion here)¬¬¬¬_______ to get her to sleep longer? Everyone from the pediatrician to the woman in front of you in the checkout line wants to know about your baby’s sleep.
As a specialist in postpartum mood disorders, I’m interested in a different sleep question. I want every pediatrician, midwife, obstetrician, and family doctor to ask a different question: “Can you sleep when the baby sleeps?”
It’s normal for new mothers to be exhausted. It’s normal for new mothers to fall asleep sometimes before the baby does: nodding off during the nighttime feeding, for example. It’s normal for new moms to fall asleep at the movies, in front of the television, while riding in the car, on the train to work. Sleep deprivation comes with the territory, and the normal response to sleep deprivation is to sleep at every opportunity.
However, some mothers cannot sleep when their babies sleep. This is a hallmark for postpartum depression or anxiety. The emotional illnesses which follow childbirth commonly interfere with sleep—the brain simply won’t shut off, won’t give you a break.
Mothers with postpartum depression and anxiety aren’t less exhausted—if anything, they’re more tired. Their inability to sleep is a symptom of a chemical imbalance in the brain.
It’s not normal to toss and turn while your baby sleeps. If you can’t sleep when the baby sleeps, chances are, something is wrong.
Copyright 2006, Valerie Davis Raskin
