The Surprising Truth About How Long Postpartum Depression Lasts - HuffPost

When Jane gave birth to her baby 10 years ago, she very quickly began experiencing significant postpartum depression.

“It felt like there was this thing in me that took root and grew,” said Jane, 47, who asked to use only her first name for this story.

As the months passed after giving birth, Jane found herself making clearer and clearer plans for how she’d take her own life.

And despite the fact that it was years after she had given birth, the roots of her depression felt obvious.

New research published in the journal Pediatrics this week supports what parents like Jane, as well as mental health professionals who specialize in the issue, have long known: that “postpartum” depression is not just something that strikes in the weeks and months immediately following childbirth.

In the study, which tracked 5,000 mothers in New York over time, one-quarter of the women experienced elevated depression symptoms at some point in the three years after giving birth.

But that timeline may not do enough to catch those who are struggling, particularly because many patients with postpartum depression are reluctant to speak about what they’re experiencing out of a sense that their symptoms somehow mean they are bad parents.

That is why the authors of the new study clearly state that screening within the first year after giving birth is insufficient and that pediatricians should consider assessing patients for at least the first two years after they have a baby.