The Facts about Perinatal Psychiatric Disorders
Mood and anxiety disorders are the most common complication of childbearing. These experiences can leave many expecting and new mothers feeling alone and desperate.
Psychiatric services can help, but these patients need treatment from health care providers with experience caring for pregnant women and in an environment that keeps mothers and babies together.
Facts about postpartum depression (PPD)
- Major depression is the most common postpartum complication women experience, affecting approximately 15% of women having a baby.
- The days and weeks after a baby is born is the most common time for a woman to be admitted to a psychiatric inpatient facility.
- Untreated PPD can negatively impact a baby's emotional and cognitive functioning, interferes with mother and baby bonding, and predicts future emotional and behavioral problems when the baby starts school.
Depression and anxiety disorders during pregnancy are associated with:
- Poor nutrition
- Use of nicotine, alcohol and drugs
- Premature delivery
- Low birth weight
- Negative health behaviors which impact the health of mother and baby