BACKGROUND Postpartum mental disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression, psychosis) are serious conditions that affect approximately 10-15% of women after childbirth, and up to 40% of women at risk for these disorders. Research reveals an association between poor sleep quality/quantity and symptoms of anxiety, depression and psychosis. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the available e...

BACKGROUND There are limited data on the parenting stress (PS) levels in sub-Saharan African mothers and on the association between ante- and postnatal depression and anxiety on PS. METHODS A longitudinal birth cohort of 577 women from Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire was followed from the 3rd trimester in pregnancy to 2 years postpartum between 2010 and 2013. Depression and anxiety were assessed by t...

Marked endocrine alterations occur after delivery. Most women cope well with these changes, but the postpartum period is associated with an increased risk of depressive episodes. Previous studies of emotion processing have focused on maternal-infant bonding or postpartum depression (PPD), and longitudinal studies of the neural correlates of emotion processing throughout the postpartum period in...

Background: Anxious disorders are very common psychiatry problems in pregnant women.  Today, in addition to the conventional medicine, complementary medicine (acupressure and cupping therapy) is also important in the treatment of painful syndromes. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of dry cupping and acupressure application on postpartum anxiety in nulliparous women admitte...

BACKGROUND Universal interventions to prevent postnatal mental disorders in women have had limited success, perhaps because they were insufficiently theorized, not gender-informed and overlooked relevant risk factors. This study aimed to determine whether an innovative brief psycho-educational program for mothers, fathers and first newborns, which addressed salient learning needs about infant b...

Background: Pre-pregnancy obesity and postpartum mental disorders are prevalent health risks to both the mother and the offspring. The objective of our study was to examine whether a history of childhood maltreatment is associated with pre-pregnancy obesity and postpartum mental health and whether childhood maltreatment and pre-pregnancy BMI independently predict postpartum mental health. Metho...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association between postpartum maternal depressive symptoms or maternal anxiety and health services utilization (HSU) for infants. DESIGN Telephone survey. SETTING London-Middlesex region of Ontario. PARTICIPANTS Mothers of infants 2 to 12 months of age between 2004 and 2005 (N = 655). This sample was drawn from a larger longitudinal cohort of mothers recruited d...

A woman’s ability to adapt and identify with the concept of being a mother is a process that occurs progressively throughout pregnancy and is predictive of postpartum adaptation and infant health outcomes. Integral to this adaptive process is the esteem-enhancing support from a partner or husband. Less is known about the impact of military deployment and the absence of the husband on the pregna...

BACKGROUND The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) is a widely used screening tool for postpartum depression (PPD). Although the reliability and validity of EPDS in Japanese has been confirmed and the prevalence of PPD is found to be about the same as Western countries, the factor structure of the Japanese version of EPDS has not been elucidated yet. METHODS 690 Japanese mothers compl...

This study examined the effectiveness of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback intervention for reduction of psychological stress in women in the early postpartum period. On postpartum day 4, 55 healthy subjects received a brief explanation about HRV biofeedback using a portable device. Among them, 25 mothers who agreed to implement HRV biofeedback at home were grouped as the biofeedback gro...