Pregnancy changes a woman’s body and brain in ways scientists are still working to understand.
Consider postpartum depression: some 10% to 20% of mothers feel a prolonged sadness, anxiety, irritability, and inability to bond with their newborns after giving birth, for anywhere between a few weeks and six months. The condition is likely due to a set of changes that occur after a woman gives birth as her body adjusts itself once more. Medical experts still don’t know all the pieces of this complicated adjustment process, nor do they know exactly what it might due to a woman’s mental health—or whether some element of those changes mimic what happens in the body of someone with clinical depression. Because many of their symptoms are similar to that clinical depression, these women are often treated with standard antidepressants, like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), even though postpartum depression might be a completely different condition.
Source: Quartz
