ABSTRACT
Perinatal mood disorders – those happening around the time of birth – are nothing new. The stigma of mental illness continues to exist in our society, despite statistics indicating that more than 18 million adults suffer from some form of depression. With perinatal mood disorders, there is the additional burden of having a mental illness at a time that is supposed to be filled with joy. Perinatal mood disorders cut across all lines of ethnicity, socio-economic status and even gender. One major misconception is that the “baby blues” is a mild form of postpartum depression. People often confuse the blues with postpartum depression because the two share some of the same symptoms. The symptoms most commonly experienced by women with postpartum depression are sadness, excessive worry and anxiety, changes in appetite and sleep patterns, overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, guilt and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts.
