We’re grateful to Today for shining a light on a postpartum condition that gets very little press: PTSD. There’s a lot of good information about postpartum depression available to new moms now, but we’d be surprised if you’ve heard much about postpartum PTSD before. Here’s an excerpt from Today’s story, and if you’re in the greater Cleveland area and recognize yourself or someone you love in this piece, we hope you’ll reach out.
Sarah Allevato couldn’t sleep following the birth of her son. For months, she suffered unexplained anxiety and was plagued by the fear that something would harm her baby.
“I would wake in a panic that Finn would die from SIDS or would develop an infection so bad that he would be hospitalized. I would often panic for no reason, and I would have to watch Finn to make sure nothing bad would happen.”
The 29-year-old social worker and first-time mom wasn’t suffering from postpartum depression; she was experiencing postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder.
Approximately nine percent of postpartum women suffer from PTSD according to Postpartum Support International, and yet, clinical research aimed at new mothers is scarce, especially compared to postpartum depression. According to Dr. Daniel Bober, assistant clinical professor at Yale Medical School and New York University Medical School, misdiagnosis is a concern. “You would think that most practitioners would be able to distinguish between the two, but when they see a woman who has just had a child, they tend to slap that label of postpartum depression onto them.”