Postpartum Depression Screening.

Abstract

Question: When I screen mothers for postpartum depression, I often wonder about how best to explain the reason for doing this or how to insure I am being helpful to these moms. Any thoughts? A: Professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics1 and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,2 recommend that health care providers screen mothers for the occurrence of postpartum depression. Pediatricians are asked to do this because in the year after delivery, the only health care provider that most young mothers will see is their child’s pediatrician. If they don’t inquire about maternal depression, it is possible that no one else will. Doing worthwhile screening, however, requires some extra understanding about depression in moms. More than half of all moms experience a period of “baby blues” in the first few weeks after delivery, meaning they experience a period of significant sadness, exhaustion, fear, and mood instability.3 More often than not, this experience resolves just fine on its own, particularly in the presence of good social supports. So, I describe the extremely common experience of “baby blues” with new parents as a common transitional reaction to