Perinatal Depression: Symptoms, Prevalence, Causes, Treatment and Prevention Strategies

Introduction
 A perinatal depression
refers to the depression
faced by the woman during
their pregnancy or within a
year after the birth of the
child. Prenatal depression is
one of the most serious area
of concern in Australia.
This depression can affect
the physical wellbeing of
the person also.The
prevalence rate of this
problem has increased in a
high rate and this perinatal
depression even crosses the
prevalence rate of baby
blues that is usual
symptoms among the
mother after the birth of the
baby due to drastic changes
in the hormone level of the
woman.During this time,
the emotional health of the
person is in very vulnerable
condition (Chen et al.
2018).
It is observed that,
perinatal depression
can affect the new born
child through the poor
cognitive, physical
development, poor
immune system and
malnutrition (Chen et al.
2018).
Symptoms
 Abrupt mode
swing
 Nervousness
 Sleeping problem
 Isolation from
personal life
 Irritation
 Frequent crying.
 Feeling guilty
 Hallucination
(Sockol 2015)
Fear and anxiety
PERINATAL
DEPRESSION
IF
In USA, the perinatal
depression is
observed among 10-
20% of woman. In
Asia, 65% or more
mothers have the
problem of perinatal
depression. The
male, who have
partners with
perinatal depression,
have more chances to
have depression

JJ Prevalence of the Disease
It is observed that almost 10-20% of
women are experiencing the
depression either in the first 12
months of post-partum or during the
pregnancy period.In world, almost
121 million people is suffering from
the depression and it is associated
with the severe consequences of those
persons. Due to severe mental
depression, the patient may face
extreme consequences like death due
to commencement of suicide. It is
observed that there are 850,000 deaths
per year due to the severe depression.
Moreover, The prevalence rate is
much higher in the developmental
countries of the world (Sockol 2015).
Causes of Perinatal
depression
Although there is no exact
cause of perinatal depression.
Moreover, there are a few
factors that can contribute to
the onset of perinatal
depression.The contributive
factors are- sleep deficiency,
vitamin D deficiency,
inadequate social support,
and experience of trauma
during or after birth of the
child, previous history of
depression (Nicholson et al.
2016).