“In the last two decades, it has become widely accepted that postpartum depression, which can make mothers both inattentive and irritable, is dangerous, and many states have instituted programs to screen for it and treat it. Far less recognized is an equally troubling condition: antenatal depression, or depression suffered during pregnancy, which affects up to 15 percent of expectant women. Some have been depressed for years and remain so; some have resolved previous depression with medication, go off it while pregnant and relapse; some have never been depressed until pregnancy triggers a descent into mental illness. Like postpartum depression, antenatal depression can be traumatic for mother and child. For more than half of the women who develop postpartum depression, the condition is simply an escalation of pre-existing depression; addressing the antenatal problem would ameliorate the postpartum one.”
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Source: NY Times by ANDREW SOLOMON
Image Source: Photograph from Wendy Isnardi
