In “To Your Health” in the Washington Post (8/29), psychologist Juli Fraga, PsyD, writes that many people are unaware that “postpartum depression (PPD), the mental health disorder that affects up to 20 percent of new mothers…often begins during pregnancy.”
Research indicates that “women who develop depression before or during their pregnancies suffer from a more severe version of this mental-health concern and experience more intense feelings of sadness, along with sleep concerns and, in rare instances, paranoia.”
Recently, “the US Preventive Services Task Force recommended that all expectant and new mothers receive maternal mental-health screenings.”
Related Links:
— “Prenatal depression may be the most severe form of maternal depression,” Juli Fraga, Washington Post, August 29, 2016.