One in five women will experience an emotional complication of pregnancy in the postpartum period, ranging from anxiety to depression. When it goes unrecognized and untreated, postpartum depression can be a serious problem, impacting a mom, baby and the entire family.
“In the postpartum period, depression been linked to moms and babies not bonding well together,” explained Nancy Byatt, DO, MS, MBA, in a recent interview for the Voices of UMassMed podcast. “It’s also been linked to kids of moms with depression having their own psychiatric illness. And, dads also have their own increased risk of depression.”
Byatt is associate professor of psychiatry, obstetrics & gynecology and quantitative health sciences and director of the Division of Women’s Mental Health. Tiffany Moore Simas, MD, MPH, MEd, is associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry and quantitative health sciences. Together they co-direct the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms in Massachusetts, a program they developed to help obstetricians overcome obstacles to getting mothers mental health care.
In the podcast, the doctors explain how the program has impacted outcomes for mothers, and how it’s expanding nationally.
“The more you really talk to women about their feeling around pregnancy and childbirth, there’s a lot of anxiety, there’s a lot of self-doubt,” Moore Simas said. “There is a point where women need help.”
Listen to the full episode here: umassmed.edu/news/voices. You can also listen and subscribe to the podcast on SoundCloud and iTunes by searching Voices of UMassMed. To share feedback and ideas for future episodes, e-mail the Office of Communications at UMassChanCommunications@umassmed.edu.
