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Studies have shown that as many as 10% of women manifest clinically significant depression during any given month of pregnancy or during the year following delivery. To explore the trajectory of women’s depression before, during, and after pregnancy, researchers used a large health insurer’s database to examine records of 4398 new mothers from 39 weeks before pregnancy through 39 weeks following delivery. Most patients were white (79%) and married (76%) and had at least 13 years of education (53%).
The researchers found that during at least one of the phases studied (preconception, pregnancy, after delivery), 15.4% of the women were diagnosed with depression, as determined by a medical record diagnosis, a mental health visit for major depres…