Sad dad: 1 in 10 new fathers suffer from postpartum depression

Paternal postpartum depression develops gradually in the first year of a baby’s life (Photo: Shutterstock)

When my former colleague Peter learnt that his wife Annie of 10 years was pregnant for the third time, he wasn’t very happy about it. He was especially worried about the additional financial strain on the family’s resources with the new baby. But over the next nine months, he slowly came to terms with it, only for him to blow up when the baby was only two months old. He took to drinking and emotional abuse; so bad that Annie bundled up her three children and moved out.                                                                                                         

To listen to Peter, he says the insomnia wrought by the baby broke him. What he doesn’t know is that he may have been experiencing the classic case of Paternal Postpartum Depression (PPPD). The Journal Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes postpartum depression (PPD) as a major depressive episode during pregnancy or within four weeks after birth. It is common among mothers. But consistently, studies have shown that postpartum depression is also rife among men, only that it is often overlooked. In one of his published articles, psychiatrist Dr Frank Njenga asserts that despite the paternal PPD being not as common as the maternal one, it is just as real.