Homoeopathy and Post Natal Depression - What’s the alternative?
Ana Lamaro, homoeopath and psychotherapist.
By: Caitlin Chang [Age journalist]
Sunday Age: Weekend ‘Living’ supplement 21/3/2010

Question: “I have recently been diagnosed with post-natal depression and prescribed
anti-depressants. What are some additional things I can do to try and get well?

Homoeopath and psychotherapist, Ana Lamaro says:
There is no more important time to have access to a good therapist than during the transition to motherhood, especially if this is provoking mood difficulties. Most health practitioners recognise that anti-depressant treatment without counselling is not ideal. Realistic recovery begins once you recognise the aspects of your past and personal history that are connected to the low mood. If you do not have a psychotherapist, counsellor or psychologist, or access to a referral, contact the Post and Antenatal Depression Association (PANDA).

Many new mothers are reluctant to take anti-depressant medication while they are breastfeeding so homoeopaths are often called upon to treat women who experience depression after childbirth. Using very highly diluted preparations, made from plant, mineral or animal substances, homoeopathy offers a safe, non-toxic form of treatment. When the remedy is accurately selected, it can do much to relieve your suffering.

Often the emotional and physical changes brought about through pregnancy and childbirth can evoke a state of mind, mood or memory related to the mother’s own childhood or her experience of being mothered. These events may be taking place at an unconscious level but they can have a profound effect on a new mother’s mood and energy.

For example, a new mother who may have been separated from her own mother during infancy may be in some way ‘re-living’ these painful events during her own post-natal period. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, a sense of being alone and over-whelmed at being unable to fulfil the task of mothering may be elicited from a usually deeply buried awareness of the mother’s own difficult start. Acknowledging this information and ‘joining the dots’ begins the process of recovery.\

Attachment theory, which grew out of the psychoanalytic movement, identifies the symbiotic nature of the infant/mother relationship. It suggests a child may ‘carry’ the effects of its mother’s experience of pregnancy, or her reactions to difficult life events during this period, and recognises the effects on temperament and personality development. The negative feelings associated with these experiences may not emerge until that infant herself becomes a mother.

A homoeopath will observe the unique way in which each individual is affected by these experiences in order to find the most suitable remedy. Patients suffering from profound sadness, hopelessness and loss of physical energy will, for example, receive a different treatment to those who may be experiencing feelings of rage and resentment. Homoeopathic medicine accounts for mental, emotional and physical symptoms when selecting the correct remedy.

The process of matching each person’s unique state with the relevant homoeopathic
medicine is analogous to effective counselling therapy. The treatment will gently facilitate a process of increased awareness and the expression of previously obscured emotions. The advantage of utilising a tool like homeopathy is that the process of recovery can be much shorter than with the ‘talking cure’ alone. A well selected remedy offers an additional intervention and can deliver you from your own distress, and psychologically speaking, bring you back to your baby sooner.