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Many persons see postpartum depression as a problem that affects only the mother. This, however, is not the case. The entire family experiences relationship issues that alter family interactions drastically. Depressed mothers who do not seek treatment frequently put their babies at risk for severe or fatal setbacks in growth and development.

The medical term for this complex condition is nonorganic failure to thrive. Nonorganic indicates that there is no medical cause for the infant's delays. Because of the mom's postpartum depression, she frequently stops meeting the baby's nutritional and emotional needs. Although the infant may cry out in hunger at first, he or she often loses interest and stops relating to other people. This condition may cause malnutrition, starvation, or even death.

Physicians use growth charts to follow a baby's physical growth with respect to height, weight, and head size. If a baby is healthy from birth, his or her size will be within the normal values on the growth charts. If the infant starts to experience severe growth delays, the problem will be apparent by tracking his or her progress with normal growth charts. If an infant's progress is below the fifth percentile, doctors get worried.

Other symptoms may become evident before an infant's growth problems reach this critical point. Most babies who grow normally are interested in their environment. In contrast, babies who fail to thrive show little or no curiosity about their surroundings. These infants rarely make sounds or talk; they have quit attempting to respond to their caregivers.

How serious is this condition? If untreated, the baby may starve, and even die. Although the infant may get just enough nutrition to stay alive, his or her heart, bone, and mind do develop properly. Furthermore, even when they do get help, these children never "catch up" completely. They frequently acquire social problems or eating disorders, even when they finally start getting their needs met.

Infants diagnosed with failure to thrive often become gravely ill from starvation. They usually are hospitalized for weeks or months. Sometimes, they become so weakened that feeding from a bottle is exhausting. They receive nutrition via a tube placed in the stomach, or even in a vein to receive food!

The most tragic aspect of this condition is that it can be easily prevented. If mothers who have postpartum depression identify this problem when it begins, they are able to seek treatment and never expose their fragile babies to these terrible complications. In fact, research has demonstrated that nine-tenths of those mothers who suffer from depression and seek treatment will find healing!

A variety of approaches is used to treat postpartum depression. Many doctors use medications like antidepressants. These medicines are costly. Nursing mothers should also avoid them. Moreover, these drugs sometimes cause thoughts of suicide; these medications should be used with extreme caution.

Frequently, doctors encourage counseling instead of or along with medications. Counseling, however, can be expensive. In addition, it can be time-consuming, and many weeks may go by before this therapy is successful. Regrettably, depending on the severity of the woman's depression, this much time may be too much to prevent harm to the infant. If the child starts showing delayed growth, extra therapies may be required.

Luckily, other non-medicinal therapy approaches can be used. Two revolutionary, beneficial approaches that typically yield positive outcomes much more quickly than counseling, and are much less dangerous than medication, are Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP and hypnosis for depression. NLP and hypnosis typically start to work after even a single session. Moreover, they are much less expensive than other approaches.

Moms who suspect they have postpartum depression need to seek treatment at once so that their babies do not develop critical growth problems. The seriousness of the effects on the infant demands that the treatment work quickly, and have a high rate of effectiveness. NLP and hypnotherapy for depression cost little, begin to work almost immediately, and are extremely effective. Therefore, both of these treatments are ideal for helping women with postpartum depression.

Summary: Postpartum depression is depression that occurs after the birth of a child. New moms are not able to provide their infants the attention they need to live and thrive. This results in failure to thrive, a severe, potentially deadly condition, which hurts the baby. Women who suspect that they have postpartum depression should get treatment immediately. Hypnotherapy and NLP for depression cost little and are extremely effective.

Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in stress and depression related symptoms as an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He's helped thousands of clients since 1978. He supplies self-hypnosis therapy for depression CDs. Visit his Neuro-VISION hypnotherapy site for the hypnosis article index, or watch his free videos on hypnosis.