Reasons to Strive for Emotional Balance During Pregnancy
Thursday, October 23, 2008
There are plenty of reasons to be emotionally balanced during your pregnancy, one of which is the health of your unborn baby.The Kaiser Permanente Division of Research conducted a study and found that women with depression are twice as likely to have preterm birth than women with no symptoms of depression. The more depressed a pregnant woman is the greater chance for preterm delivery.
"Post-partum depression has been extensively studied and discussed by the public, but depression during pregnancy is significantly under-recognized and under-diagnosed. Clinicians should pay close attention to depression during pregnancy to catch it early," said lead author Dr. De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland. "If prenatal depression is indeed as prevalent as reported in this and other studies and doubles the risk of preterm delivery, then bringing depression to the forefront of prenatal care could lead to a significant reduction of preterm deliveries."
For further reading: March of Dimes | Depression During Pregnancy
posted by The Mom Salon Editors @ 12:22 AM,
