The Functions of Postpartum Depression

(Affonso & Arizmendi, 1986), as are “negative or detached feelings for the baby” (Kumar &
Robson, 1984).

Beck’s (1996b) in-depth interviews with 12 women suffering from PPD provide a powerful
portrayal of these mothers’ experiences with and attitudes towards their infants that is entirely
consistent with the defection hypothesis:

I had no control of my own self-being, nothing, mind, soul, nothing. It [PPD]
basically controlled me. I wanted to reach out to my baby, yet I couldn’t (p. 100).

The fact that I couldn’t love her normally made the guilt even worse. You just don’t
feel anything good for your baby. You just feel full of guilt (p. 101).

I just went through the motions making sure my baby was fed. I was just like a robot.

I would pick her up. I would breastfeed her. I would put her down. I was just
walking around the house like a zombie (p. 100).

I would be going along and being okay, and then I would get up to that changing
table and in a matter of seconds my mind would have started with, “Oh, the baby is
going to fall off the table. I don’t care if she falls off the table.” Why did I think that
I don’t care if she falls off the table? Of course I care (p. 102).

Beck distilled nine themes from the interview transcripts, each consistent with the
defection hypothesis:

Theme 1: Postpartum depression overtook mother’s minds and bodies, preventing
them from reaching out to their infants and depriving them of any feelings of joy.

Theme 2: Overwhelmed by the responsibilities for caring for their children, the
women were petrified that they would not be able to cope.

Theme 3: To survive, some mothers erected a wall to separate themselves
emotionally and physically from their children.

Theme 4: Stripped of a strong desire to interact with their children, and plagued by
oversensitivity to stimuli, mothers often failed to respond to their infants’ cues.

Theme 5: Guilt and irrational thinking pervaded mothers’ minds during their day-to-
day interactions with their children. [Guilt suggests that mothers are not doing as
much for their children as they feel they should; “irrational thinking” may refer to
infanticidal ideation or to exaggerated fears about the infant.]

Theme 6: Uncontrollable anger erupted periodically toward the children, to the
degree that mothers feared they might harm their children. [A possible infanticide
adaptation]

Theme 7: As postpartum depression engulfed the mothers, they perceived that
detrimental relationships with their older children were materializing. [These mothers
may be investing in the infant at the expense of their older children.]

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