When you suffer from the symptoms of postpartum depression, this can directly affect your child. Studies show that children of women that suffered from postpartum depression are much more likely to grow up to have internal conflicts. These children are more likely to be insecure, lack in confidence, and are less comfortable with the world around them. These children also have a higher risk of suffering from anxiety and depression themselves.

Hey there, my name is Bethany Cook. I am the proud mother of 2 beautiful children and a former victim of postpartum depression. Although it was 3 years ago, I can still vividly remember having my first child. It was early June and we had just moved from our apartment in Michigan to a Condo in South Carolina. I had just moved away from all of my family. My husband and I thought it would be a good idea to move away from the cold weather, but we weren’t expecting me to get pregnant any time soon. I was on birth control and we couldn’t believe it happened. But.... it did. And now we were far from any family... and I was about to have a child.

The truth is that we weren’t too worried about it. I mean we knew we could handle it and we knew we would make it through alright. We were both actually very excited about our up and coming new addition to the household and we were ready to take on the challenge..

But then... I gave birth to my first daughter. And little did I know that this was going to mark the start one of the saddest, lowest, most depressing, and scariest times in my life.

At first I didn’t notice. Or maybe I only chose not to notice. I thought I was just tired from giving birth and that I would feel better soon. Time went on and I only started to feel worse.

I started to feel down very often. It seemed like I felt like crying all of the time. Every minute of the day I could easily break down into tears if I didn’t purposely hold it back. I had never felt a depression like this. This feeling was very unfamiliar to me and it terrified me...