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The baby blues is the name for mood changes that affect many new mothers in the first few days after their baby is born.

If you have the baby blues, you may:¹

• Feel low
• Feel anxious
• Feel irritable
• Be more sensitive than usual
• Have mood swings
• Feel weepy for no reason.

These feelings are usually the worst on the fourth or fifth day after your baby is born. They may last for a few hours or a few days. But they usually go away by the 10th day after the birth.

Unlike the worse mood changes of postpartum depression, baby blues don't affect your ability to look after yourself or your baby.¹

We know that between 15 in 100 and 85 in 100 women get the baby blues. But we can't say exactly how many women get it because different studies say different things. We also don't know for certain what causes the baby blues. It may be a mixture of different things that happen when you have a baby. These things include:

• Changes in your body
• Changes in how you feel about your role in life
• How you feel about being a mother and the responsibility of being a parent
• How much support you get from people around you.

But we do know that women who have had depression at other times in their lives, including the kind that comes on before your period (called premenstrual depression), are more likely than others to get the baby blues.²

Women who get the baby blues are more likely to get postpartum depression than those who don't get the baby blues. A quarter of women who have the baby blues go on to get postpartum depression.³

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.