While this is not really about miscarriage, it is about postpartum depression, something I went through after my 3rd miscarriage although not to the extent that Brooke Shields and other women have.
In case the New York Times password protects the article in archives, you can always email me at mediaegg @ hotmail.com to get a copy of the full article (or register for free at NYTimes.com).
Below is an excerpt...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/01/opinion/01shields.html
Op-Ed Contributor
War of Words
By BROOKE SHIELDS
Published: July 1, 2005
London
I WAS hoping it wouldn't come to this, but after Tom Cruise's interview with Matt Lauer on the NBC show "Today" last week, I feel compelled to speak not just for myself but also for the hundreds of thousands of women who have suffered from postpartum depression. While Mr. Cruise says that Mr. Lauer and I do not "understand the history of psychiatry," I'm going to take a wild guess and say that Mr. Cruise has never suffered from postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression is caused by the hormonal shifts that occur after childbirth. During pregnancy, a woman's level of estrogen and progesterone greatly increases; then, in the first 24 hours after childbirth, the amount of these hormones rapidly drops to normal, nonpregnant levels. This change in hormone levels can lead to reactions that range from restlessness and irritability to feelings of sadness and hopelessness.
I never thought I would have postpartum depression. After two years of trying to conceive and several attempts at in vitro fertilization, I thought I would be overjoyed when my daughter, Rowan Francis, was born in the spring of 2003. But instead I felt completely overwhelmed. This baby was a stranger to me. I didn't know what to do with her. I didn't feel at all joyful. I attributed feelings of doom to simple fatigue and figured that they would eventually go away. But they didn't; in fact, they got worse. [READ MORE...]
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