Childbirth can be a taxing and pivotal moment in a new mother’s life and it’s not uncommon to experience moments of panic, anxiety, insomnia, low energy, low libido, irritability, or extreme sadness. These symptoms are recognised as a type of clinical depression called post natal depression or post partum depression.
Post natal depression is not a modern phenomenon however; women in ancient and medieval China were reported to have experienced symptoms resembling that of post natal depression. After childbirth, a woman is much depleted in vital energies such as Qi and blood, having sacrificed part of her vital essence in order to create life.
Chinese medicine resolves this depletion and imbalance with a combination of nourishing herbal brews to restore the mother’s vital energies and acupuncture to calm the spirit and mind; to allow for sleep and rest and in effect, work with the body’s own healing processes to make one whole again.