Dear Friends:
    There are countries in this world where there isn't even a word to
describe postpartum depression. But I don't know if bf can take the credit.
It might. And so might a network of family and friends who come and mother
the new mother for quite a while after delivery.
    I worked with a mother from Sierra Leone who told me that if she had
birthed back home, she would have gone to her mother's house for three
months. Her mother and sisters would have pampered her and taught her to be a
mother. In this country, she was totally isolated with her first baby.
    There is some association with PMS and PPD. And I have read (don't ask me
to remember right now, I just got back from a business trip) that mothers who
adopt can experience PPD in the first year after getting a baby. And also
that the rates are similar for both bf and bottle-feeding mothers.
    My vote goes to the isolation and lack of suppport for the new mother
that sets her up for PPD. Warmly, Nikki

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