Depression can affect just as many pregnant women as it does postpartum women, if not more. Fourteen to twenty-three percent of pregnant women suffer from depression while five to twenty-five percent of women will have postpartum depression. Typically your obstetrician and your pediatrician will give you a short questionnaire on multiple occasions after your baby is born that will screen for signs of postpartum depression. The questionnaire might contain statements like “I cry more than usual” and ask you to rate that statement on a scale of one to five. Postpartum depression is not something you should try to hide … Continue reading →

A few months ago I wrote about the new guidelines submitted by the American Psychiatric Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists concerning treatment of depression during pregnancy. At that time, the decision on whether to continue treatment with antidepressants was largely dependent on the severity of the depression. It was found that for some women, the benefits of treatment outweigh the possible risks of treatment. Recently another study conducted research on the effects of antidepressants on newborns. The results showed that the newborns of mothers who took antidepressants during their pregnancy were more likely to be born … Continue reading →