Often referred as “baby blues”, Postpartum Depression (PPD) is experienced in some degrees by more than 50 percent of women giving birth. This type of depression can last for some time, which may vary between a few weeks to a few months.

Causes behind Postpartum Depression

The body of women goes through immense hormonal changes after pregnancy and child birth and this is one of the biggest reasons behind postpartum depression. Other reason behind postpartum depression in a new mother is lack of proper sleep, as the baby is always crying and hence requires non-stop attention.

What You Can Notice During Postpartum Depression?

The period of Postpartum Depression is characterized by rapid changes in hormones of a female body. The progesterone and the estrogen levels fall dramatically within 48 hours and these gonadal steroids are very much involved in causing the depression in women.

If you are suffering from postpartum depression, you may experience difficulty in sleeping, lack the desire of eating, feel hopeless and depressed all the time. There are many ways with which you can deal your postpartum depression, but beware that the symptoms of this depression state come and go for some time.

How to Deal With Postpartum Depression Symptoms?

Sleep As Much As Possible

The first and foremost way to deal with your postpartum depression symptoms is to get sleep as much you can. This may be difficult for you, especially if you are breastfeeding throughout the whole night. Due to this, your sleep may get interrupted for every two to three hours. The best way to cope with this is to breastfeed your baby lying in your bed so that you can get some rest while breastfeeding. It is ideal for you to take naps during the daytime, as every bit of rest results in rejuvenating and energising your body.

Nourish Your Body with Proper Food

Since you just gave birth and you are breastfeeding your baby, you need to nourish your body with good and proper foods. You should have snacks all throughout the day. Always have some vegetables in your diet especially a few carrots, as they keep you energised. Remember that a poor appetite leads to increase of depression and fatigue in your body.

Stay With Family and Friends

Again, you should always be in the midst of good friends and your family. This is because having people around you can contribute in changing your mood. You get the much needed outlet to express your feelings and thoughts. This automatically reduces the chances of you getting depressed. It is recommended that in an event of postpartum depression, you keep yourself surrounded with things helping you to feel good.

Such goods things may be candles lit in your bedroom, have some soft music being played or have pictures containing happy memories of your life. These things can boost you with happy energy and make you feel good.

Apart from these, postpartum depression can also be dealt by doing significant amount of exercise, as it increases your metabolism rate. This improves the frame of your mind and health. You can also go for a walk to 10 minutes in the morning, as it can help both your body and mind.

Women’s Abortions Clinic Dr. James S. Pendergraft opened the Orlando Women’s Center in March 1996 to provide a full range of health care for women, including abortions, physical examinations, family planning, counseling, laboratory services and sexually transmitted disease screening and counseling.

I would say that this is one of the darkest consequences of the over expression and over manifestation of the uncontrolled masculine principle in the society from a long period of time. A society and a world structure which had considered women, womanhood and the feminine principle inferior to men and the masculine principle from thousands of years is the primary reason for this heinous act of crime against humanity which even exists today.

What is rape: The real truth

We need to be really aware of this truth. Till a few centuries back, rape, physical abuse and mental abuse were the primary tools utilized by humanity to suppress and subdue the women and womanhood. Women were made to live as second class citizens throughout the world for many-many centuries without any active role in public life or for that matter they even did not have much control of their own private life.

What is rape: The curse of the patriarchal society

A patriarchal society had always sought to control women in every way that was possible. This suited their interests and the behavioral pattern manifested by them in terms of power, control, manipulations, exploitations, racism, hatred & and unabashed individualization. Rape and violence against women was used as an instrument for mass control and power during war and peace across civilizations.

Though much has changed in last 100 years but still the same patriarchal society exists with the same structure based on power, control, manipulations, exploitations and unabashed individualization which does not care for others and that’s why we can see the mess that the world is in. Overtly it seems much has changed. There have been waves of feminist movements across the world in the last 100 years with great achievements. But the real structure which created the inequality and bias against womanhood and the feminine principle still exist in the collective psyche of society. That’s why heinous crimes like rape are still seen even in the most civilized part of the world also. Given a chance, still that devilish instinct comes out whenever possible. Let it be the war prison case where Iraqi women were tortured and raped, or the Keeling rape and murder case in Goa or the countless incidents of rape, torture and violence that takes place in many-many counties the world over.

What is rape: Change in thinking

Creating laws against this kind of heinous crime is not enough. There is a need for bringing a profound shift in the mental attitude of the society to root out this curse in the society. Basically the need of the hour is to make people understand that there is a great balance between the feminine and masculine principles in the universe and this balance has been systematically destroyed by the patriarchal society. The society needs to change its flawed thinking where the feminine is considered inferior, weak and subordinate to the masculine. This thinking is the primary seed for a heinous crime like rape where actually the psychological satisfaction of power and control is what that is sought by the rapist apart from the devilish physical lust that is satisfied at the expense of the other person. Most of the times after rape, murder is committed to hide the crime and so one heinous crime leads to another.

What is rape: Being aware of the situation and confronting it openly

Let’s not hide these issues under the carpet. Let’s really face the truth. Society has not really reconciled with the universal truth of equality in importance of the feminine and masculine principle. Still in the deep psyche of the society the acceptance has not taken place. That’s why we can see the patriarchal society still surviving in today’s world. Look around and we can see that all the established structures of the society are still patriarchal in nature. Religion, Government, Business and every other structure in the society works through the patriarchal philosophy of control and domination by the few on the rest of the humanity. That’s why we don’t see much value in society for concepts like universal love, compassion, nurturing and generative movement of the society based on the principle of unification.

What is rape: Change is needed in the society which is based on power and control

We see selfish individualism, power politics, manipulations and exploitations in every sphere of the society whether it is at the level of an individual, society, country or the world at large. So when we ask a question like what is rape, the answer would be that it is one of the most extreme manifestations of the patriarchal attitude of control and subjugation of the feminine and womanhood. That is, “what is rape”.

What is rape: Correction of the psychological anomaly

We need to work for the total eradication of the existing psychological anomaly which is based on control and subjugation of the feminine. This is needed for bringing in a new world order based on gender equality. The fundamental solution towards this direction is to primarily increase the awareness among the people as well actively engage in creation of a new order based on the rise of womanhood and the feminine principle. That will be the only long term solution that is practical and that is needed to eradicate crimes against humanity like rape.

Savoy, by some accounts, was a late bloomer when it came to getting her first period. She did not start until she was in the seventh grade. From the start her monthly menstrual cycle was a cause for trepidation. She would miss school on a regular basis every month during her cycle because the pain was so bad. “I needed help for menstrual cramps,” says Savoy [not her real name], now a 21-year-old Senior in college, in Northern California. “I would take the maximum dose of an over-the-counter pain reliever then muscle through it. When I turned 16, I was still having so many issues my parents discussed the situation with my doctor and I was put on high-dose birth control pills. That helped a lot.” (Since birth control pills sustain more reliable hormone levels, they can provide help for menstrual cramps.)

However, when Savoy entered her Junior year of high school she discovered something that had even better results in providing help for menstrual cramps: exercise. “I joined the high school cheer-leading squad, then the soccer team, and I discovered that the pain was subsiding more and more,” she says. “I was able to go off the birth control pills for the rest of high school.”

Dysmenorrhea — which translated means menstrual pain — affects scores of women. There are studies that indicate as many as 90% of young women experience intense pain during their periods, and it has become the number one reason for women missing school and work for this age group.

Physical workouts provide help for menstrual cramps because they let go beta-endorphins, which are internal opioids — your exclusive “human morphine,” according to leading obstetrician-gynecologists. Workouts create analgesia [paid relief] and assist in burning the prostaglandins — chemicals let go during menstruation that create muscle contractions — far quicker.

The number one type of workout for help for menstrual cramps, leading professionals agree, happens to be aerobic workouts — a workout that ramps your heart rate upward, like rapid walking, bicycle riding, aquatic undertakings like swimming or water polo, or, in winter when you can’t be outside, even ice-skating at a local ice rink. The key, one clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York quoted, “is that you endeavor to devote 30 minutes, three times a week, to intensive aerobic exercise.”

Savoy discovered a short time ago that her intense menstrual pain has returned, since laying off her regular exercise program due to a heavy class load at college. Her doctor wants to eliminate the chance it could be other problems, but she and Savoy are in agreement that her lack of strenuous exercise has to go by the wayside and her successful routine reinstated.

“The area around my college campus has a lot of hills with ups and downs, and I enjoy going on extended hikes with my Siberian husky puppy, Volk, so my goal is carving out that time again for exercise I know is help for menstrual cramps,” says Savoy.

Exercise for Help for Menstrual Cramps

The goal: You must work up a sweat by walking, running or whatever you choose, at a rapid pace. Ideally you should be capable of having a discussion with someone who is with you, but not so easily it does not require some effort. Do you need some incentive? Consider undertaking what Savoy does: Tackle the hills, or have your high energy dog accompany you.

The Reward: True help for menstrual cramps appears to arise from energetic physical activity, the type that ramps your heart rate upward and has you puffing like a steam engine. As this occurs your own near perfect machine known as the human body; let’s go of those endorphins that battle the menstrual cramp making chemicals that is a component of your menstrual cycle.

Now go get a Husky and run like the wind!

No loving parent wants to see their offspring hurting. The effects of menstrual cramps both in the physical pain experienced as well as the physiological pain are not only difficult for your daughter, but can create a difficult situation for those connected with her. Many young girls don’t experience extremely painful cramps or emotional swings, but research has discovered that increased pollution and pesticides affecting our children are contributing to them facing adult situations more often.

As a loving parent you may want to reconsider immediately turning to commonly available remedies that doctors recommend for pain relief. The problem with over-the -counter drugs is that they mask the capability of ones body to telegraph to you that an issue exists rather than take care of the root of the pain. The natural methods outlined here help your body by removing or putting into balance the chemistry of

your body.

Taking the time to relay to your daughter that menstruation is a natural, healthy process, may assist her in dealing with the biological changes that occur each month. Assist her in understanding the monthly process and the fact hormonal alterations occur, can make her feel uncomfortable. If necessary consult with her doctor or pediatrician to find out what may be causing the discomfort.

Natural Solutions for Menstrual Cramps

Omega Fatty Acids high in lignans have many components including a reduction in breast tenderness, bloating, hot flashes and other symptoms related to Pre-Menstrual Symptoms (PMS). Lignans in flax-seed also regulate women’s menstrual cycle. In one study, women consuming lignans in flax-seed did not miss a single cycle, compared to the control group that missed several cycles.

Lignans in flax-seed also possess the following attributes:

* Prevention of estrogen-related cancers * Prevention of metastasis of cancerous tumors * Powerful antioxidant capabilities * Anti-viral properties * Anti-bacterial properties * Anti-fungal properties * Improved nail strength * Improvement in skin texture and appearance * Improvement in hair sheen and appearance * Reduction of cravings for fat-laden and junk foods

A regime complete with a high quality flax-seed additive could assist in helping to prevent breast cancer as well as increase her cerebral capability!

Acupressure and Acupuncture

Acupressure is a traditional healing practice based on similar principles as acupuncture. Pressure is applied to the acupuncture points instead of needles. It is a simple solution that is often suggested by alternative practitioners.

Many acupuncture clients have found relief from menstrual cramps when applying pressure to the Spleen 6 pressure point. To find the point, acupuncturists suggest feeling the bony point of the inner ankle. From that point, draw an imaginary line up the lower calf from the inner ankle. The point is approximately four finger widths from the inner ankle. It isn’t on the shin bone, but just beside it towards the back of the calf.

With your thumb, increase the pressure little by little. The pressure should not be painful or uncomfortable. Hold this pressure for approximately three minutes.

Acupressure to the Spleen 6 point should not be done if you are pregnant nor applied over broken or infected skin.

Homeopathy

Those practicing Homeopathic solutions stand by the theory that a sick individual can be helped by utilizing a substance that can create, in an individual who is healthy, alike indications to those of the sickness. Homeopathic medicines are therapeutically active micro-doses of mineral, botanical and biological substances. They are reliable and safe drugs, therefore considered by many as an excellent first choice when self-medicating. Homeopathy has been used for more than 200 years, creating an outstanding record of safety and in turn outputting a tremendous store of knowledge.

Individual solutions can best be determined by a practitioner, however, you can also find resolution by referring to a book or publication that explains the symptoms and the applicable solution. There are multiple dosages solutions available for common maladies. Single and multi-dose remedies are commonly found in health food stores. Some multi-dose remedies like teething tablets are becoming common enough to be carried by most pharmacies.

Other Natural Remedies

Other remedies you may want to explore include: reflexology, hydrotherapy, juice therapy, massage, heat, herbs such as crambark, aromatherapy, and Ayruveda.

The determination to look for alternate solutions for your child’s health is our responsibility as loving parents and to be as informed as we can about things that affect the health and wellness of our children.

There is often overwhelming information that is in conflict with itself. Separating the truth from fiction can be daunting. The best advice is become as informed as you can, make the best decisions based on your collective research, then move on.

Stressing about it can only bring negative “Karma” to you. As a loving parent it is not always about the path of least resistance. Instead, it is all about being receptive to becoming the best parent you can be!

Brad Hodges is President of Brad Hodges Enterprises an Internet Marketing Company specializing in Internet product and services reviews, Health & Wellness and eCommerce solutions and opportunities