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Frequency of the Baby Blues or Post Adoption Depression
You know, both as an adoptive mom who experienced it and as an adoption educator I've been writing (see Adopting after Infertility, 1992, Launching a Baby's Adoption, 1998) and training about post adoption anxiety and/or depression for a LONG time. There a number of explanations for why it is logical that it might happen some ways to predict it and to head it off at the pass, so to speak. It's frustrating that most agencies still don't mention it as a possibility as part of their parent prep process.
However, though the situation is not uncommon, it has NOT been formally accepted by the mental health community as a diagnosable "syndrome" of its own. Additionally, there has been virtually no formal research on this and not even any statistically relevant surveys, so the statistic of "over 65%" mentioned by the original poster is not in any way reliable. I'd love to know where it came from!
Pat Johnston
Infertility and adoption educator and amom to three young adults.
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