This study will be conducted with the aim of identifying causes of postpartum stress in mothers who have given birth recently. The study will be carried out in outpatient clinics for newborn babies and in hospitals that offer postnatal care for new mothers. A target of 200 new mothers and 20 postnatal clinic attendants will be sampled, studied and analyzed. The conclusions drawn will be from the information acquired. Data will be collected using open ended questionnaires and existing literature on the subject of causes of postpartum stress in women who have recently given birth will be thoroughly reviewed. It is expected that some of the causes of postpartum stress will include hormonal changes, the birth experience, fears and anxieties about the new born baby, worries about the post pregnancy body and sexuality, financial pressure and work related problems and disappointment about the quality of support given by ones partner. Some of the strategies that will be effective to combat this causes will include getting good social support, getting enough sleep, abandoning unrealistic expectations and seeking psychotherapyBased on Sebastian (2016), postpartum stress is a post-traumatic stress disorder that that affects averagely 15% of all new mothers after giving birth and is also known to affect fathers, but minimally. If not well dealt with, postpartum stress disrupts the young mothers life and has significantly negative effects on the live of the baby, other children in the family, other relationships and especially that with her partner.This type of disorder comes in two stages; an early stage called early onset and a late stage called late onset stage. According to Venis and McCloskey (2007), the early stage seems like baby blues and is experienced by roughly 80% of all new mothers. This stage is characterized by extra sensitivity and other symptoms that include mood changes, irritability, tearfulness and anxiety. These symptoms tend to be at peak within the first one week of birth but start disappearing within two weeks without specific medication except for support, understanding, skill and practice. Late onset appears several weeks after birth and its symptoms include chronic tiredness, depression and lack of energy, significant weight loss or gain, difficulty giving attention to the baby, noticeable change in appetite and growing a feeling of sadness.The major aim of the research to be conducted will be to determine strategies that are most effective in reducing postpartum stress that is discussed above for mothers who have recently given birth.Giving birth comes with feelings that are both joyful and stressful. In the words of Klier . (2008), then giving birth, hormones that are associated with psychological stress, that is, cortisol and epinephrine rise by a massive 500%. After labor women start experiencing a lot of changes that are both physical and psychological. For instance physical stressors like torn tissues, backaches, perennial pain and urinary tract infections are common. Hormonal changes, the birth experience itself, the uncertainty of motherhood for new mothers, insufficient sleep, lack of enough social and spousal support and nutrition may cause psychological effects on the new mother thus leading to postpartum stress. This research aims to study and come up with answers to these problems.The purpose of this study is to establish strategies that are most effective in reducing postpartum stress and suggest ways to test the effectiveness of these strategies for mothers who have recently given birth.The main objective of the study will be:Postpartum stress is commonly referred to as a hidden disease because it is hard to detect and slowly eats away the motherhood in a woman and sometimes takes her away from the whole family. This means that the disorder is generally under detected in the whole world. According to Deniz and Ayaz (2014), it does not have a particular origin; however, it happens because of a mixture of different causes that follow child birth, changes in hormonal levels being the major cause. Estrogen and progesterone levels tend to be low thus triggering mood swings.The most common symptoms of postpartum stress are feeling withdrawn from the rest of the world especially from family and friends, being unable to establish an emotional connection with you child, feeling overly anxious about the new baby, sleeping too much or being unable to catch some sleep when the baby has fallen asleep, feeling angry, moody, teary and irritable without any reason, loss of concern in those activities that one usually enjoys and having trouble in making decisions, concentrating and remembering details, among others (Yenis & McCloskey, 2007).Postpartum stress is normally confused with the baby blues. As much as the symptoms might be the same, baby blues are mild and take short period of about one or two weeks before they disappear on their own. Up to 80% of all new mothers experience baby blues and about 15% of all new mothers experience postpartum stress (Patel & Wisner, 2011). Since the symptoms associated with postpartum depression are so severe, the victim generally requires medical attention unlike in the case of baby blues.Considering the fact that postpartum stress is a common occurrence to new mothers, so little has been done in terms of its research. Antenatal psychosocial support to the new mother is one way of treating the stress. However, midwives counseling, upkeep and clarifications about giving birth before labor starts have enabled to provide a better perinatal psychological well-being of the new mothers (Patel & Wilsner, 2008).Resent research shows that an involvement of a one hour anticipation session between day two and day five of postpartum reduced the regularity and perseverance of the stressful symptoms at four to six weeks post-delivery, but the results were only consistent with majority of the group that was studied (Sebastian, 2016).The use of hormones might be another possible way of prevention. Estrogen hormone is known to lessen post-delivery depressive signs in deeply stressed new mothers (Venis & McCloskey, 2007). However, artificial progesterone opposes estrogen as it enhances maternal depression at six weeks postnatal.This topic will cover the participants involved in the study, the research design, procedure of collecting the required data, and its analysis.The study intends to collect data from 220 participants. 200 of them are expected to be new mothers and preferably those who have given birth for the first time. The remaining 20 participants will be expected to be postnatal clinic attendants and midwives who specialize in both prenatal and postnatal counseling of new parents. All the participants will be randomly chosen form postnatal care clinics.The study will use a quantitative research design because the sample size to be studied is a rather large representative of the entire population. The kind of data collection methods also favors a quantitative research since we will be using questionnaires to collect data.When using this type of research method, a wide range of concepts are generalized and it helps predict future results. This is in line with the objectives of this study as we intend to find out the causes of postpartum stress, strategies that can be used to combat the stress and the effectiveness of these strategies.Firstly, prospective participants will be required to fill a form detailing the aim of the study and asking them whether they would want to participate in the study. Those participants who will be willing take part in the study will be asked to give the time that they will be available so that the researcher can work at the convenience of the participants. The participants will take part in the study solely and not in groups.The researcher, after sampling enough participants and collecting enough information about the availability of the participants, will come up with a schedule on how to collect the data. This will be done by administering an open ended questionnaire in a serene environment with the participants so that the data collected is true to the knowledge of the participant and thus reliable.Due to the time limitation pinpointed in the assignment instructions, the study will discuss the expected findings based on other accredited studies done regarding the same topic. Assuming that the findings of the study conducted by Deniz and Ayaz (2014) are justified, it is expected that most mothers suffering from postpartum stress do not actually know that they are suffering from the disorder. They will mostly assume that the symptoms they exhibit are normal and are related to having given birth recently, that is, baby blues. However, it seems as if baby blues that are characterized by extra sensitivity, mood changes, irritability, tearfulness and anxiety only last for at most two weeks and then gradually disappear on their own. Based on Klier . (2008), persistence of symptoms such as chronic tiredness, depression, and lack of energy, significant weight loss or gain, difficulty giving attention to the baby, noticeable change in appetite and growing a feeling of sadness indicate that one is suffering from postpartum stress and they need to seek help before it is too late. It is thus expected that antenatal psychosocial support and counseling helps to reduce the stress levels. Other remedies that may have been suggested in fighting postpartum stress include the use of hormone estrogen that eases the depression in deeply stressed women (Sebastian, 2016). Use of hormones and counseling might be effective in helping new mothers cope with the stress associated with child birth, but more effective is the prevention of the stress by an involvement of a one hour session between day two and day five after giving birth.ReferencesDeniz, C., & Ayaz, S. (2014). Factors causing stress in women with babies 0-3 months old and their coping styles. , (7), 587-593.Klier, C., Rosenblum, K., Zeller, M., Steinhardt, K., Bergemann, N., & Muzik, M. (2008). A multirisk approach to predicting chronicity of postpartum depression symptoms. , (8), 718-724.Patel, S., & Wisner, K. (2011). Decision making for depression treatment during pregnancy and the postpartum period. , (7), 589-595.Sebastian, L. (2016). . New York: Addicus Books Incorporated.Venis, J., & McCloskey, S. (2007). . New York: Marlowe & Co.