Can postpartum depression be prevented? The answer is Yes, even in high-risk mothers.
Preventive counseling reduced the risk of postpartum depression from 20 percent to 4 percent within three months of delivery, in a recent study from Brown university. Other studies have shown similar preventative benefits for at-risk mothers.
Young, poor, first-time mothers with few resources and a family history of depression have a one in five chance of developing major depression in the first few months after the baby is born! Postpartum depression has effects on children that are both both immediate and lasting. At least one study found that infants of depressed mothers develop more slowly, including measurably lower IQ in boys at later ages.
The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is launching a study of in-home cognitive therapy offered to depressed first-time mothers during the year after they deliver.
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