Researchers are using a new iphone app, PPD ACT, to recruit and collect DNA samples from women who have experienced postpartum depression.
See the full NYT article here to learn more about it.
HUFFPOST PARENTS --
A somewhat separate, but equally serious type of maternal depression has yet to garner the same type of attention. Depression during pregnancy, often called prenatal or antenatal depression, affects roughly 15 to 25 percent of expectant mothers, upending the neat cultural narrative that pregnancy is a time of excitement and joy for all women. So many mothers-to-be are left to navigate serious depressive symptoms almost entirely on their own.
The New York Times --
Women should be screened for depression during pregnancy and after giving birth, an influential government-appointed health panel said Tuesday, the first time it has recommended screening for maternal mental illness.
The recommendation, expected to galvanize many more health providers to provide screening, comes in the wake of new evidence that maternal mental illness is more common than previously thought; that many cases of what has been called postpartum depression actually start during pregnancy; and that left untreated, these mood disorders can be detrimental to the well-being of children.
Erica Andrews describes what postpartum feels like through a selfie. "Baby in sling. Skin to skin. Adult diapers. And a rosy glow."
She described the emotional changes felt in the moment:
"My body feels like it ran a marathon and my heart is wide open from yesterday's travels. Birth opens us like an earthquake opens the earth and I am still in the intimate, fragile throes of that opening. I feel raw. Emotional. Different. 23 hours ago I held life within and 24 hours ago I surged and transformed allowing life to flow through me, into my waiting hands. The emptiness in my womb brings a heavy feeling crashing into reality but then this new little life whimpers, searching for the breast with soft rooting, and I feel whole again."
The New York Times ---
Children are much more likely than not to grow up in a household in which their parents work, and in nearly half of all two-parent families today, both parents work full time, a sharp increase from previous decades. What hasn’t changed: the difficulty of balancing it all. Working parents say they feel stressed, tired, rushed and short on quality time with their children, friends, partners or hobbies, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
Mindfulness for Moms is a 6 week training workshop to learn mindfulness skills that will help you to be present, compassionate, and aware, despite the challenges of parenting a new baby.
Mindfulness skills have been shown to contribute to increased positive emotion and healthy stress management and relationship skills. Training goals are to increase the pleasant and joyful parts of becoming a mom and connect you more with your new baby.
Part I: 6 one hour sessions
$50 per session
Moms and babies (newborn to pre-crawling) attend the training together in small groups of 4-6 moms.
If you are interested in hosting a training series in your home with other moms please contact me to discuss details.
If you would like to be invited to join a training series please email me privately.
Pregnant women often fear taking the antidepressants they rely on. But not treating their mental illness can be just as dangerous.
by Andrew Solomon
flora@cobblehillcounseling.com | 646.629.9870
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