Lavender Brown

[nikkiolapotter]

I could've sworn there was a thread for Lav-Lav before, but I can't find it. So, I'll start a new one.

My question:
Would it be believable for Lavender to have post-pardum depression? If so, do you have any suggestions on how to go about writing this?

[Eowyn89]

Would it be believable for Lavender to have postpartum depression? If so, do you have any suggestions on how to go about writing this?

From what we have seen of Lavender so far in the Harry Potter series is that she is a gossipy, comforting, immature girl. She wants to be loved, perhaps a little too desperately. You can see how “mushy” she is with Ron, giving him the necklace “My Sweetheart” and dubbing him “Won-Won”.

In this case, I think she can suffer from postpartum depression, because a lot of women experience that during and after pregnancy due to extreme fluctuations of hormones in their systems. I do not believe she would be an extreme case though if she was diagnosed with postpartum depression. Lavender is very much a child—I see her being moody and pouting constantly during and after pregnancy because she would no longer feel beautiful or as young as she once was.

To pull off Lavender as a depressed character would take delicate wording, because it is out of her character and unbelievable. Lavender is not one to seriously mean the horrible things she says. She is merely looking for sympathy. Like I have said before, she is more moody in the Harry Potter series than depressed. Although she may turn out different as she ages and becomes more mature.

My advice would be to not make her depressed, but extremely “bi-polar”. Pregnant women often tend to be happy one minute, and angry the next. Write about how her boyfriend/husband comforts her during the pregnancy. Lavender is a very “over-the-top” person—so there is a lot of leeway there. I could see her saying things like, “Oh, I will NEVER fit into that little black dress again! I look dreadful!” or something along those lines. For more reference, you could research her moments in the books, or look for more information on the Lexicon.

Hope I helped!

~Katie

[Belezza]

I think that if you want to make her depressed, you could write it like her bubbly-ness (sorry, that's not really a word...) is just a cover up for her true depression. You could make her insecure with whether or not people like her. Evidence to support that could be when she thought Ron liked Hermione and she always wanted to know if she was still liked by him.

hope that helps!

-Ashley

[red and gold]

Would it be believable for Lavender to have post-partum depression? If so, do you have any suggestions on how to go about writing this?

I think it would be believable for any woman in fanfic- even Lavender - to have post-partum depression. It's really not the kind of thing you can look at someone and tell right off if they're a good candidate for it. Look at Brooke Shields. Lavender Brown never struck me as the shy, quiet, hold it all in kind - in fact Ron mentions that it was pretty bad when she was yelling when he broke up with her. If she was happy, bubbly, surprised, horrified, angry, resentful, whatever, the people around her knew it.

Web MD defines it as:

Postpartum depression -- This is a far more serious condition than postpartum blues, affecting about one in 10 new mothers. If you've had postpartum depression before, your risk increases 50 to 80%. You may experience alternating "highs" and "lows," frequent crying, irritability and fatigue, as well as feelings of guilt, anxiety and inability to care for your baby or yourself. Symptoms range from mild to severe and may appear within days of the delivery or gradually, even up to a year later. Although symptoms can last from several weeks up to a year, treatment with psychotherapy or antidepressants is very effective.

What causes it:

What Causes Postpartum Depression?
More research is needed to determine the link between the rapid drop in hormones after delivery and depression. The levels of estrogen and progesterone, the female reproductive hormones, increase tenfold during pregnancy but drop sharply after delivery. By three days postpartum, levels of these hormones drop back to pre-pregnant levels. In addition to these chemical changes, the social and psychological changes associated with having a baby create an increased risk of postpartum depression.

If Lavender is young, having her first child, and if she won't have alot of family around her, I can easily see her quickly becoming overwhelmed. She's deathly tired after giving birth, but the baby needs feeding every two hours. The crying wears on her fraying nerves until she feels absolutely helpless. She wants so bad to comfort her child and hold her close, but she can't stand the crying. All she wants is to sleep. Her husband can try to help her, but another paradox is that as much as you want sleep, you don't think anyone else can take care of your baby as well as you can. That could make Lavender really sharp-tongued and irritable towards her husband or the people around her, which leads to feeling guilty for lashing out at the very people who love her and want to help. I can see her breaking down, sobbing, frightened at how powerless she is to help herself feel better and she wonders if she'll ever be "normal" again. It just doesn't seem like the happy dream she imagined being a mother would be - the others moms she's seen have made it look so easy and effortless and Lavender wonders what's wrong with her. Is she a bad mother? Why can't she snap out of it?

And I could go on, if you want. It doesn't sound very pleasant - and it's not. It all depends on how you want to write it - kinda dark and frightening if being written from Lavender's point of view, or caring and concerned from the husband's point of view who's having to watch his wife suffer through this.

I hope some of this helps you!

~Andrea

[h_vic]

Do you think it could be believable for Lavender to convince herself that she was in love with Ron (even though what they actually had was a brief shallow little fling) and continue to bear a torch for him for a long time afterwards?

[meryal]

Do you think it could be believable for Lavender to convince herself that she was in love with Ron (even though what they actually had was a brief shallow little fling) and continue to bear a torch for him for a long time afterwards?

Probably. Though we don't know a lot about Lavender, in general it seems by that age more relationships have been getting more serious and she would believe that about her and Ron. They did go out for quite a few months, and it might be sterotypical, but she does seem like the giggly girl who would believe that it was more serious than it was. She might get into another relationship quickly to get over him, but in her haste to get over Ron, she never really pays attencion to the guy she actually is dating. Eventually it would be all about Ron. Hope that helps!
~Sophie

[BloodRayne]

I agree. Even though their relationship was admittedly shallow and only physical, Lavender is certainley the type of girl that would fool herself into thinking it actually meant something. Or rather, she seemed to like Ron more than he liked her at the time. I think Ron, at that time, was just so caught up about having someone like him (especially after that fight with Ginny about never snogging anyone) and want to make out with him that he agreed to date Lavender.

Lavender doesn't know about these issues, so she assumed he liked her back. She visited him a lot in the hospital and he didn't respond. I think this shows that she cares for him somewhat, and she was very jealous when he and Hermione "got together." So yes, I think it would take her longer than usual to get over him, but not too long. I don't think she would go into a deep depression about it, but I do think she would have a bit of a hard time getting over it. She would mask her sadness with giggles and smiles, but inside she would be hurting at Ron's rejection. But she would get over it eventually, and she wouldn't let it affect her life any more than it has, I think.

[Phoebe Gruzelieur]

Yeah, I think she would be like that, and be crying in the toilets and such like. And she seems like the sort of person who would be quite popular, so she'd probably have tons of friends trying to help her out, and in fact it would make things worse.

[Maerad_Of_Pellinor]

I think Lavender would try and get attention out of the break up and try to get a lot of sympathy from her friends.
For the first couple of weeks after the break up i could see her as being very weepy and teary and attention seeking. then she would become a bit delusional and try to convince herself that Ron really loved her. with thoughts that ron was trying to make her jealous? After a while though i think she would give up on that idea, let it go and date somebody else.
hope this helps

[h_vic]

Thanks so much for the help on my previous question. I was just wondering now if any one knows whether there are any hints given in canon as to what Lavender looks like?

Thanks,

~Hannah