Mothers may face postpartum depression for up to three years after childbirth

It seems that postpartum depression does not only last up to a year, as what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates in its May guidance. New research has found that it could last up to three years after giving birth.

Researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) looked at 5,000 women for a period of three years after they gave birth. The NIH revealed in a news release that depressive symptoms still manifested up to three years after childbirth.

The researchers used data from the Upstate KIDS study, which covers babies who were born between 2008 to 2010. The babies were from from 57 counties of the New York state.

The symptoms of women were assessed with the use of a short, five-item depression screening questionnaire. The researchers noted that the study was not meant to clinically diagnose depression in mothers. They found that approximately one in four women experienced depressive symptoms at a certain point within three years after childbirth. The rest, the researchers said, experienced low depression levels. They also observed that women who were suffering from underlying conditions like gestational diabetes and mood disorders were shown to have higher depressive symptoms. The researchers found that the symptoms in these groups of women persisted all throughout the three-year study.

The CDC provides that postpartum depression may occur up to a year after childbirth. It also warned that when depression is untreated, it could burden the health of the mother and could even lead to sleeping, behavioural and eating disorders for the baby.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, on the other hand, recommends that pediatricians, during well-child visits of the mom and the baby, must screen mothers for postpartum depression. These visits are normally at one, two, four, and six months after giving birth.

Diane Putnic, Ph.D., lead author, and NICHD Epidemiology Branch staff scientist, stated that their study suggests that screening moms for depressive symptoms, for up to only six months may not be enough. She underscored the importance of long-term data, which would be key to understanding the mental health of mothers. This aspect has been long held as critical in the development and well-being of the child.

Postpartum Depression Lasts 3 Years