Jana Flowers: The Cause Of Postpartum Depression

On October 13th, 2016, I interviewed Jana Flowers, a Psychology professor, who specializes in child development. At first, I was completely clueless on who I should interview because I had the mindset that I should interview a doctor or researcher. Eventually, I realized that it would be wise of me to interview an expert such as a professor who specializes in psychology. Jana Flowers was a suitable person because she is a notable professor who specializes on child development and can also give a female perspective concerning postpartum depression. Her knowledge about Psychology is on a PhD level, and although she did tell me in advance that postpartum depression was not her specialty, she had enough knowledge concerning depression.
During

She mentioned how neurotransmitters can affect people and low levels of Serotonin and Norepinephrine are associated with depression. When women go through childbirth, there is a drastic hormonal change and these changes are unpredictable. It can cause an increase or decrease in several chemical functions in the body, thus causing a mental illness. Due to this, Flowers interpreted stigma towards depression as absurd because depression is a brain illness that is no one’s fault or responsibility. An interesting thing she added was that excessive dopamine is the cause of Postpartum Psychosis. Since neurons are rapidly firing at the back of the head, it causes individuals to hallucinate and develop schizophrenia. These individuals break from reality and cannot trust their brain since the brain is giving false sensory

Since bonding between the mother and child is an important necessity in child development, lack of it can affect the child. Even though the mother is not purposely neglecting the child (benevolent neglect), the child’s behavioral growth will still be affected. Children are resilient and can grow in a neglected household without having behavioral traits affected, but that can only apply if they learn how to nurture a positive behavior. Flowers also stated that external stigma revolving around depression was caused by the lack of knowledge of how the brain works. Society views it was something that comes and go and a shameful feeling for a new mother to experience. In the past, people did not view postpartum depression as a thing because women never revealed the condition since they did not want to feel stigmatized. Flowers also pointed out that disclosing information has helped society have a little more understanding that postpartum depression can happen to anyone due to notable people making an influence. When Tom Cruise made a statement of postpartum depression not existing, female celebrities, such as Marie Osmond, came out with the confession that she experienced postpartum depression. This helped numerous women around the world to disclose their information because a celebrity was speaking on behalf of women who are afraid to come out, and