Emotions and Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Question 1

Emotional Distress

Answer 1

A common affective reaction to stressors experienced during pregnancy or around the time of childbirth

Question 2

Prenatal emotional distress

Answer 2

Risk factor for adverse birth outcomes

Question 3

Postpartum blues

Answer 3

Mild depressive symptoms after childbirth; usually resolves within 10 days

Question 4

Postpartum depression

Answer 4

Clinically-diagnosable depressive episode after childbirth. An estimated 10-15% of women experience it.

Question 5

Summary

Answer 5

This article is a comment on another article written by different people that discuss research on the types and magnitude of emotional stressors that occur to women during pregnancy and postpartum, as well as suggesting ways to treat so as to help the women adjust or function better.
Additionally, since women tend to get overdiagnosed for depression but also underdiagnosed for other reactions to such experiences (due to a huge focus on depression), many women are misunderstood or addressed improperly.