What can family members do for a person with postpartum depression who is refusing help?

Refusing help is a sign of depression. The more you try to help, the more they resent you for it.

The important thing is to keep yourself healthy and not let it affect the rest of the family or the child/children.

get as much information as you can from internet sites, use a simple google search, and get the information to her, Insight is the best thing to help people and that also may encourage her to get some help, usually you can go to a regular medical doctor for help with that…it does not have to be a psychiatrist, that might make her feel more comfortable..

Short of an intervention with the entire family there isn’t much you can do. You may be able to have her committed for 72 hours, depending upon where you are located. IF a person doesn’t truly want help, they won’t accept it. In the meantime, you can be supportive, close at hand to help out with the daily chores and gently talk to her about going for help….. Give her Brooke Shields book to read, maybe that might sink in. Good luck.

you can have the police assist you with getting her into a car and take her to an inpatient treatment center that deals with depression. call your doctor’s office in advance and get the number for a facility… and take the person there!

Keep a close watch and your family member and more importantly her baby. You can’t force someone into getting help and we don’t want another Andrea Yates out there.

I would suggest going to a meet-up group for mothers/new mom support group. Do some research on groups in her area. Maybe if she met other moms who have gone through the same thing, it will encourage her to get further help.

Don’t ask her, just have someone fix her meals. Make sure she gets 3 oz of protein (best are salmon, tuna, chicken and turkey). Make fresh green leafy veges – broccoli, brussels sprouts, salads, etc. Fix the meal using olive oil (extra light doesn’t have much oily flavor compared to standard olive oil). Put almonds on the salads. Have peanuts available for snacking.

What you are doing is feeding her food that will help level her blood sugar. If she got tested, her blood sugar might be lower than normal, due to the sudden lessening of her body’s needs to feed a baby.

Also, make sure she is drinking her water 64 oz a day, and getting some exercise.

Bully her into eating, by reminding her that she has to eat if she is going to breastfeed her baby with healthy mother’s milk.

To get more basic information on low blood sugar, and some other symptoms it causes, check out http://www.hufa.org.

social services/mental health if she i or her baby are in danger they may be able to make her be evaluated. good luck!!!

I would say to support the family member as much as you can. But don’t smother the person. Probably needs some space but not to much. Just be careful with them. Support is the best thing to offer. Don’t get angry at them, let them ease there way back into things.

NOT TO BE CRUEL… BUT YOU NEED TO TELL HER IT’S TIME TO GET HELP NOW OR SHE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO CARE FOR HER CHILD ALONE ! 25 YEARS AGO MY UNCLE’S WIFE… WHO WE THOUGHT WAS JUST GOING THRU "THE BABY BLUES" SHOT AND KILLED HERSELF AND THEIR 6 WEEK OLD SON, ERIC ! WE ALL FELT GUILTY AND RESPONSIBLE FOR A LONG TIME, BECAUSE WE DID NOT INSIST THAT SHE GET HELP !