Baby blues, also called the 3rd day syndrome (because it most often appears 3 days after giving birth), affects 50 to 80% of young mothers. There are many tips to reduce the risk of baby blues, with your lifestyle being one of the most important factors in helping you conquer this phenomenon. As always, a healthy diet and regular physical activity will help you.
Baby blues is not only explained by the hormonal upheaval following childbirth, but also by all the disruptions that birth of a child causes to your daily life. It is therefore perfectly normal to feel sadness, melancholy or even anxiety in the face of this new life.
If you are well looked after and supported both by a medical team and by your loved ones *: baby blues should only last a few days. If you’re still feeling low ten days after delivery, then it is probably postpartum depression, in which case you shouldn’t hesitate in consulting your doctor or midwife about it.
In order to prevent the onset of baby blues, we strongly advise you to eat and live as well as possible between conception and your new family life. Indeed, certain foods could help prevent the onset of baby blues.
What to eat to improve your morale?
From the moment you fall pregnant, eat lots of magnesium which is present in good quantities in bananas, oilseeds and pulses. We also advise you to increase your intake of tyrosine, an amino acid found in dairy products, meat, fish and eggs, as well as tryptophan, a second amino acid, found in starchy foods and pulses.
Omega 3 can also prevent the decline in morale linked to baby blues **. You will mainly find Omega 3 in fatty fish (salmon, tuna, cooked thoroughly throughout the duration of your pregnancy) and in linseed oil.
Our Pregnancy Program is not only adapted to your diet during pregnancy, but also post-natal and onwards. The diet of pregnant women and young mothers holds no secrets to us! Thus, with this program, you will be supervised by a qualified dietitian-nutritionist who will advise you on your eating habits. You will even receive a menu schedule for the whole week adapted to your tastes. It is also possible to set up a diet with snacks if you feel the urge or the need for them.
Finally, we will help you choose an appropriate physical activity, whether it be before, during or after your pregnancy, since it also reduces the risk of depression during and after pregnancy ***. Fortunately, we all have lots of endorphins!
*Šebela, A., Hanka, J. and Mohr, P. (2019). Diagnostics and modern trends in therapy of postpartum depression. Czech Gynaecology, pp.68-72.
**Freeman, M., Hibbeln, J., Wisner, K., Brumbach, B., Watchman, M. and Gelenberg, A. (2006). Randomized dose-ranging pilot trial of omega-3 fatty acids for postpartum depression. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 113(1), pp.31-35.
***Kołomańska-Bogucka and Mazur-Bialy (2019). Physical Activity and the Occurrence of Postnatal Depression—A Systematic Review. Medicina, 55(9), p.560.