Dennis - risks for postpartum depression

A lot of research has been conducted around why mothers experience postpartum depression. And we have well over 100 risk factor studies that have been conducted, and we now have really good meta-analyses. So the top risk factors related to postpartum depression are often related to past psychiatric history. So if the mother’s had depression independent of childbirth than she’s at risk of developing postpartum depression. That is one of the risk, strongest risk factors. If the mother was depressed or anxious during her pregnancy we’ll see that as a strong risk factor, because if those mothers remain untreated it will often continue into the postpartum period. But then a lot of other risk factors are psychosocial or psychological in nature. Such as childcare stress, if the mother is very stressed in caring for her child, life stressors, we’re talking about acute stressful life events, such as a death in a family, of a family member or we’re talking about chronic life stress such as low-income, poverty, being unemployed, and such. We also see lack of social support, so the mother does not have family members or friends who can provide assistance. Marital conflict is a huge risk factor for postpartum depression. We see unwanted pregnancy, low-income. Those are other risk factors. That’s based on meta-analysis. But we’re seeing new risk factors that are emerging in the literature related to if the mother was exposed to violence, either during her childhood or current so intimate partner violence, or past history of child abuse whether it be sexual, emotional or physical. We also see substance abuse. If mothers have a substance abuse history then she’s at risk for developing postpartum depression. And more recently, we’re seeing mothers who are immigrants to this country about five times more likely to develop postpartum depression.