Word: postpartum
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...this version. Aside from its support for contraception, none of the new or expanded initiatives it contains are terribly controversial: a national campaign to teach parents how to talk to their kids about sex, efforts to educate the public about adoption, home nurse visits for low-income mothers, expanded postpartum Medicaid coverage...
...Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act, familiarly known as the Mothers Act, has passed the House and is headed for the Senate. If it becomes law, it will mandate the funding of research, education and public-service announcements about postpartum depression (PPD) along with services for women who have...
...researchers say screening is intended not as a diagnostic tool but as a way to identify patients who need further evaluation. Studies suggest that PPD affects as many as 1 out of 7 mothers and that failing to treat it exposes women and their babies to unwarranted risk. "Postpartum depression is not a benign, uncommon thing. We screen all infants for [the genetic disorder] phenylketonuria, which is extremely rare. Why don't we screen women for this?" asks University of Pittsburgh Medical Center psychiatrist Katherine Wisner...
Some psychologists argue that universal PPD screening misses the point because the greatest risk factor for postpartum depression is not giving birth, in fact, but previous depression. Women develop depression at the same rate whether or not they have given birth, according to Stony Brook University psychology professor Marci Lobel. "Women who have been healthy all their lives, who haven't suffered lots of anxiety and depressive symptoms, are unlikely to have problems in the postpartum period - not even close to likely," says Michael O'Hara, a University of Iowa professor of psychology. Further, say experts, while pregnancy hormones...
Still, there's no denying that the postpartum period is a difficult one for many women. Some new mothers contend with clinical depression, but many more experience the normal feelings of "baby blues," the short-lived postpartum sadness that affects at least half of all mothers. "[We] should be addressing the social factors causing women to be upset after they give birth, not locating the problem within the women," says Paula Caplan, a clinical and research psychologist...