PND, is it Post Natal Depression or Post Natal Deficiency

In Chinese Medicine we are not so interested in labelling diseases or conditions. What we aim to do is understand a person’s physiological state, how they got there, where they are stuck and how they can move forward to improve their health.

Being post birth is a vulnerable time ripe for deficiencies and complex emotions.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is said to take about three years for a woman to recover her reserves after giving birth to a child. This time is compounded if there are multiple births close together.

The bottom line being, giving birth takes time to recover from.  Some women cruise through pregnancy, birth, and early parenthood without seemingly missing a step. Others, however, have a hard time of it and end up in difficult health situations.

 What can influence the quality of a woman’s post-natal experience?

There are some factors such as youth and constitutional strength that are individual and should not be compared to other people.  Other factors, such as diet, lifestyle, and healthy relationships play an important role.

As does your birthing experience, which is personal and can have a profound effect on how you feel post birth. Positive or negative you cannot change your birth experience. You can, however, change how you perceive or understand it and sometimes counselling and introspection can improve your understanding of events, helping you learn, grow, and strengthen.

How you perceive yourself moving forward into this next phase of motherhood is important for mental emotional stability too.

How does physical deficiency effect my emotions?

In CM we talk a lot about Organs and how they relate to certain emotions. CM is holistic and considers physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health to be interconnected.

Each Organ has physical, mental, and emotional responsibilities. As such, when a physical organ is quickly made deficient through the creation of a child, pregnancy, and birth there is likely to be emotional side effects.

Birthing a child should naturally diminish your Kidney and adrenal reserves and your blood. Blood in CM is made by the Liver, Spleen and Heart. Hence, childbirth naturally draws on a woman’s Kidney, Liver, Spleen and Heart Organs reserves.

The following is a small table of emotions that relate to these Organs according to CM.

Kidneys – overwhelm, fear, confidence, self-worth.

Liver – frustration, irritability, anger, assertion, organisation.

Spleen – worry, muddled thinking, focus, hypersensitivity, vagueness.

Heart – Joy, anxiety, self-love, love, self-acceptance.

We all have times when our emotions are dysfunctional. CM is not interested in controlling or denying them, just rebalancing them and getting back to functional physical and emotional health.

 Ok, so I might be deficient. What can I do about it?  

Whether you perceive yourself as depressed or deficient it is good to acknowledge that your body has done a lot to get you and your baby here and is worthy of your support.

Every Human Being has a body, mind, and emotions.

An important place to start when creating mental and emotional health is physically.  Knowing that your body is naturally deficient post birth means your lifestyle and outlook needs to be that much more nourishing and supportive of physical health.

To rebuild those reserves you will need plenty of rest, high levels of nutrition, instinctively chosen foods, exercise, a heart that has dreams, patience with yourself, communication in relationships, time in nature, fresh air, the basics.

Therapies such as Chinese Medicine, Herbs and Acupuncture can help get you momentum and stability. This combined with small actions and healthy habits that you are willing to take consistently and a bit of time is how to rebuild deficiency.

Knowing yourself during this time, being patient and understanding your physiological situation is a great place to start building the support you need to make that stage of your life more easeful and more functionally focused on your child.

To book your Acupuncture appointment with Luke Paten, call 3491 6533 or book your appointment online.