There hasn't been very good research on postpartum depression.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Gaynes BN, Gavin N, Meltzer-Brody S, et al.
Perinatal depression: prevalence, screening accuracy and screening outcomes. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No 119.
February 2005. Also available at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/peridepsum.htm (accessed on 27 February 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹ Also, doctors don't always recognize postpartum depression. Some researchers think that about half of all cases are not diagnosed.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Clay EC, Seehusen DA.
A review of postpartum depression for the primary care physician.
Southern Medical Journal. 2004; 97: 157-161.

 

 

 

 

 

²

Here is what the research tells us.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Gaynes BN, Gavin N, Meltzer-Brody S, et al.
Perinatal depression: prevalence, screening accuracy and screening outcomes. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No 119.
February 2005. Also available at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/peridepsum.htm (accessed on 27 February 2009).

 

 

 

 

 

¹

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
O'Hara MW, Swain AM.
Rates and risks of postpartum depression: a meta-analysis.
International Review of Psychiatry. 1996; 8: 37-54.

 

 

 

 

 

³

Overall, women are not more likely to get depression in the first year after their babies are born than women of a similar age who have not recently given birth. But the risk of getting depression is much higher than average in the first few weeks after having a baby. In the first five weeks after childbirth, you are three times more likely to get depression than a woman who has not had a baby in the last year.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Cox JL, Murray D, Chapman G.
A controlled study of the onset, duration and prevalence of postnatal depression.
British Journal of Psychiatry. 1993; 163: 27-31.

 

 

 

 

 

⁴

We don't know much about how postpartum depression affects women from different ethnic backgrounds. That's because most studies have been done among white women. But research done in South Africa and India suggests this illness is more common in developing countries than in developed ones.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Patel V, Rodrigues M, DeSouza N.
Gender, poverty and postnatal depression: a study of mothers in Goa, India.
American Journal of Psychiatry. 2002; 159: 43-47.

 

 

 

 

 

⁵

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Cooper PJ, Tomlinson M, Swartz L, et al.
Post-partum depression and the mother-infant relationship in a South African peri-urban settlement.
British Journal of Psychiatry. 1999; 175: 554-558.

 

 

 

 

 

⁶

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