Postpartum Depression News and Research

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Eighty percent of women experience some level of the baby blues after giving birth, and symptoms usually clear up on their own. One in eight-to-ten women experiences postpartum depression. When symptoms don't go away in a few weeks, women should seek help through health care providers and licensed counselors. Treatment may include talk therapy, medication, support groups, or a combination of these.

Psilocybin and mindfulness offer new hope for depressive healthcare workers

Frontline healthcare workers struggling with depression after the COVID-19 pandemic experienced significant relief from a treatment combining psilocybin group therapy with mindfulness training, according to a new study from Huntsman Mental Health Institute at University of Utah Health.

23 Oct 2025

New mothers more likely to experience severe pain and sleep problems after C-section

New mothers are more likely to experience severe pain that disrupts sleep and activities of daily living, as well as develop sleep disorders, if they give birth by cesarean delivery (C-section), suggests research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY 2025 annual meeting.

12 Oct 2025

Negative behavioral effects of psilocybin persist in mouse mothers and offspring

Magic mushrooms may not be the answer to postpartum depression, new research from the University of California, Davis suggests.

30 Sep 2025

New thesis reveals flaws in parental insurance design and mental health support

Generous parental insurance can improve the mental health of new parents. However, the way the insurance is designed risks excluding those who need the support most. This is shown in a new doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University.

21 Aug 2025

AI app Ovum gives Australian women the power to advocate for their own health

Ovum is an Australian-first AI-powered app designed to empower women to track symptoms, gain personalised health insights, and advocate for better healthcare outcomes. Developed with clinical trials and user feedback, Ovum aims to address the longstanding dismissal of women’s health concerns by the medical system.

6 Aug 2025

Changing the narrative on hormone-related mood disorders in women

In a wide-ranging Genomic Press Interview published today in Brain Medicine, Dr. David R. Rubinow recounts the serendipitous path that led him to overturn decades of medical assumptions about hormone-related mood disorders in women.

29 Jul 2025

Targeting vasopressin neurons alleviates postpartum depression

Researchers at Nanjing University's School of Life Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Peng Cheng Laboratory, have identified a specific brain circuit that eases depressive-like behaviors in a mouse model of postpartum depression, providing a promising target for future treatments. This work addresses how sudden drops in estrogen after childbirth can trigger mood disturbances.

15 Jul 2025

Doulas, once a luxury, are increasingly covered by Medicaid — even in GOP states

As a postpartum doula, Dawn Oliver does her best work in the middle of the night.

10 Jul 2025

Developmental timing shapes fluoxetine’s effects on brain energy and mood behavior

Researchers have found that the timing of when fluoxetine (commonly known by its brand name, Prozac) is administered is vital in determining the impact it has on long-lasting mood behavior and accompanying changes in the prefrontal cortex.

7 Jul 2025

Paternal mental health found to impact child development

Experts from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago affirm the need to screen new fathers for mental distress, recognizing the mounting research that underscores the importance of fathers in child development.

16 Jun 2025

New mothers experience severe loss of uninterrupted sleep after birth

A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting quantifies the amount of sleep loss experienced by first-time mothers in the weeks after giving birth and is the first to identify the unique type of sleep disruption that persists throughout the first months of motherhood.

27 May 2025

New machine learning model shows promise in predicting postpartum depression risk

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects up to 15 percent of individuals after childbirth. Early identification of patients at risk of PPD could improve proactive mental health support.

19 May 2025

Mother-infant bonding can buffer long-term effects of postpartum depression on child outcomes

Postpartum maternal mental health and mother-to-infant bonding are well-established as critical factors in a child's psychosocial development.

14 May 2025

The lasting impact of paternal depression on children

In popular culture, dads are stoic, sensitive and strong. So powerful is the mystique of the happy dad that celebrities, joke books – even hard seltzers – carry the label.

20 Apr 2025

Hormonal contraceptives linked to higher postpartum depression risk

Researchers investigate whether the use of hormonal contraception increases the risk of postpartum depression.

4 Apr 2025

Study links maternal postpartum depression to emotional overeating in children

Up to 25% of new mothers suffer from postpartum depression, which can significantly impact their parenting behavior and the wellbeing of their children.

17 Mar 2025

Reproductive justice principles improve perinatal mental health for Black birthing patients

Perinatal interventions guided by reproductive justice principles can have positive effects on the perinatal mental health of Black birthing patients and, perhaps, the mental health development of their infants, states a systematic review published in a special issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry, part of the Lippincott portfolio from Wolters Kluwer.

10 Mar 2025

The brain-gut microbiota axis: Impact on mental health & potential treatment avenues

To be decided by the editor

From Atlantia Clinical Trials 28 Feb 2025

Postpartum depression research could lead to blood test for at-risk women

New postpartum depression research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medicine could lead to a blood test to identify women at risk and possibly even to a preventive treatment.

13 Feb 2025

Hormonal markers could lead to early detection of postpartum depression

Women who go on to develop postpartum depression (PPD) may have characteristic levels of neuroactive steroids, molecules derived from the hormone progesterone, in their blood during the third trimester of pregnancy, according to a new study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

30 Jan 2025