Blue has been romanticized by many poets and songwriters for ages. But somehow, and alas, along the way blues has come to mean- in the figurative sense- sadness or sorrow. I have the blues; we say when we are not our usual selves.

Blue has also become an integral part of the idiom “feeling blue”

And this same color has made it to medical science! Physicians have learned a condition caused by hormonal charge after giving birth: post-partum blues or baby blues.

It is a puzzle- why after having a baby, many women have mood swings. One minute they feel so fulfilled, the next minute they start crying. Sometimes, they feel a little distracted or dejected, have difficulty sleeping or working up an appetite. These symptoms, which start three to four days after delivery, usually disappear in about ten days.

Unfortunately for one of my cousins, baby blues worsened into post-partum depression and ended in a tragedy. In the presence of her husband, who was cuddling their newborn baby, she went up the ledge of the hospital window and leapt to her death.

It was a difficult, extremely difficult, time for both father and son, and for all of us who knew her as a jolly, gregarious lady who viewed the world through rose-colored glasses.

This accident, which landed in the front pages of several newspapers, is probably one in a  million. But there are a million should’ve, would’ve, could’ve in her husband’s and people’s mind. It showed all of us that life does have many, many colors. Blues are just one of them.

It was an accident which nobody could have predicted at that time when this condition was hardly discussed, but could be prevented today as more information become available.