The Postpartum Depressed Man: A Keeper
Real women should take note of a study that could actually give them useful clues into the psyches of their partners. Clues, I might add, that apparently didn’t even occur to the researchers themselves.
The study on postpartum depression in men was conducted by researchers at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA. It was published in the August, 2007 issue of the journal Pediatrics although interestingly, the general media have just reported on it today, May 6, 2008, which really goes to show you how the Democrat primaries have saturated the news.
Nevertheless, apart from the cognitive dissonance real women might feel upon hearing that men suffer from postpartum depression, the study does yield some interesting findings. But only if you know how to look.
The researchers studied more than 5,000 two-parent families. Got that, ladies? Two parent families.
It found that one in ten of these new dads suffered from postpartum depression.
The reasons?
Anxiety over supporting a family.
Anxiety over relationships with their wives.
Worry over the cost of raising a child to twenty-one.
Have you got that, everyone?
These are the good guys.
In another study, the University of Chicago reports that 31% or 22.5 million of the nation’s children don’t live with either parent. Add to that the 18% or 11.9 million children who live with only one parent, usually the mother.
You can betcha those guys don’t suffer from postpartum depression.
One question the folks at Eastern Virginia don’t seem to have asked is when these new dads last had a good night’s sleep.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not belittling depression. But my advice to real women whose husbands are adjusting to the new kid by worrying about how to support their family is to uncork the champagne, pull on some sexy lingerie and dim the lights. After the fun, let him sleep all night.
He’s a keeper.
Tags: Add new tag, husband, men, postpartum depression, real women, romance, sexy lingerie