Postpartum Depression Statistics, postpartum, post partum

How Many Women Get Postpartum Depression? The Statistics on PPD

By Katherine Stone October 8, 2010

Quick, guess which number is higher: the number of people who sprain an ankle each year, the number of people who have a stroke, or the number of women who experience postpartum depression?

PPD. Surprised?

In so many books, articles and news programs, you hear the statistic — approximately 10 to 15% of women suffer from postpartum mood disorders (PPMDs), including postpartum depression (PPD), postpartum anxiety/OCD and postpartum psychosis. What bothers me about that statistic is that it holds no meaning for most people, and because of that I think these illnesses get much less funding and attention than so many of the other prevalent illnesses that strike Americans. As a result, I decided to do a bit of quick, non-scientific research to look at the real numbers and to help people understand the real impact that postpartum depression is having on the women of our country.

There were approximately 4.3 million live births in the United States in 2007. This statistic does not include fetal losses, including miscarriages and stillbirths. The National Vital Statistics Report indicates that the total number of clinically recognized pregnancies is around 6.4 million. This is important to know, because all postpartum women are susceptible to postpartum depression, regardless of the pregnancy’s outcome.

So let’s split the difference between the high (20%) and low estimates of PPD (11%) and say that an average of 15% of all postpartum women in the US suffer, as the CDC reported in its 2008 PRAMS research. And let’s use the number of clinically recognized pregnancies and not live births. This would mean that each year approximately 950,000 women are suffering postpartum depression.

BUT, did you know the CDC’s research only reflected self-reported cases of postpartum depression? How many women do you think did not mention they had PPD out of fear or shame? Should we increase the estimate of sufferers to 17% or 20%?

ALSO, these numbers don’t take into account women who may have suffered other perinatal mood and anxiety disorders like PPOCD or postpartum psychosis. Should that make the numbers go even higher?

I’d argue that the average number of new mothers who experience perinatal mood and anxiety disorders is more likely in the 20% range, which would mean around 1.3 million annually.

How does that compare with the incidence among women of other major diseases in America?

Each year fewer women — approximately 800,000 — will get diabetes. (Nat’l Diabetes Information Clearinghouse)
Each year about 300,000 women suffer a stroke. (Centers for Disease Control)
Each year approximately 230,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. (National Cancer Institute)

In fact, more mothers will suffer from postpartum depression and related illnesses this year than the combined number of new cases for both sexes of tuberculosis, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and epilepsy. This is not to minimize these other terrible diseases, of course. I simply want to illustrate just how prevalent postpartum mood & anxiety disorders are.

Dr. Ruta Nonacs of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School adds, “Postpartum depression is far more common than gestational diabetes. All women receiving prenatal care are screened for diabetes, but how many pregnant and postpartum women are screened for depression? PPD is also more common than preterm labor, low birth weight, pre-eclampsia and high blood pressure; in other words, PPD is the most common complication associated with pregnancy and childbirth.”

Let me leave you with one last thought: More moms will suffer from PPD than men will be diagnosed with new cases of impotence (approx. 600,000) this year. Yet you wouldn’t know it, considering the overabundance of erectile dysfunction (ED) ads and people falling all over themselves to discuss ED openly. Why doesn’t PPD get the same attention from pharmaceutical companies?

Why doesn’t society work as hard to eliminate the stigma of PPD? Why aren’t more corporations and foundations concerned about PPD and supporting awareness campaigns?

This really is a big problem, and deserves much more attention than it’s getting.

Photo credit: ©Andres Rodriguez – Fotolia

October 8, 2010 12:06 pm Filed Under: Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Depression Statistics

Poll of the Month: Did You Receive Info on PPD in Your Childbirth Class?

By Katherine Stone October 4, 2010

This week is Mental Health Awareness week, so I'm taking this occasion to kick off a new feature here on Postpartum Progress … (drumroll please) … welcome to the Postpartum Progress Poll of the month.

I'm going to be doing a new poll here each month. The purpose of the polls will be to gather "unscientific" data on your experience with postpartum depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, psychosis or the antenatal version of any of these. I want to hear from you on what happened, what your experience was and how you are getting (or already got!) better from these illnesses.

Perhaps this anecdotal information will better help the clinicians out there to provide better help to us. Your answers are anonymous, so please feel comfortable in sharing your experience so that others can learn from it. And you can use the share link at the bottom of the poll to share this with others so they can participate as well.

Without any further ado, here's the poll for October:

October 4, 2010 8:45 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression Statistics

1 in 8: There’s NO Excuse

By Katherine Stone August 30, 2010

1 in 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.

1 in 8 Americans struggle with hunger each year.

1 in 8 babies are born prematurely in the United Stateseach year.

1 in 8 American women (at minimum) will have postpartum depression.

I hope someday we can get the same funding and support as the important and effective public awareness campaigns I link to above, because prolonging a mother's suffering can lead to a lifetime of health problems for both her and her baby.

There's NO EXCUSE that in this day and age there are still countless women who don't know what's wrong with them, or don't know where to get help or are afraid to get help. Do you hear me OB-GYNs? Do you hear me pediatricians? Do you hear me HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius? Do you hear me corporations who care about mothers?

There's NO EXCUSE.

August 30, 2010 10:36 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression Statistics

Postpartum Depression Is an International Illness

By Katherine Stone September 28, 2009

I know this is really of no consequence, but can I just say how totally cool it is to see where my readers are coming from on Google Analytics. It’s mostly the US, the UK, Australia and Canada of course, but rounding out the top 10 this last month includes India, Israel, Belgium and Germany. And in the last 30 dayspeople have visited Postpartum Progress from Ireland, Pakistan, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Egypt, South Africa, France and from many more corners of the globe. Even 300+ people from the Phillipines came to this site! Who knew?!

I just want to say a big hello to all of my readers from elsewhere around the world. I’m so glad to have you here and I know that women suffer from postpartum depression no matter where they are in the world.

No matter where you are from, I hope you find some helpful resources here, as well as some comfort and hope here. I also hope that you feel comfortable sending me news about postpartum depression from your country. If you’re having a major conference, know of new research, are aware of support groups, specialized treatment programs,or have any other news about how women with these illnesses are treated in your country, PLEASE share them with us. You can email me any time at postpartumprogress@gmail.com.

September 28, 2009 2:24 pm Filed Under: Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Depression Statistics

Is Depression Real Or Just a Western Phenomenon?

By Katherine Stone August 17, 2009

At the PSI conference, UCLA's Dr. Vivien Burtspoke in a really interesting sessionabout depression and why women are more likely to experiencethis "illness of the brain," as she called it,than men.

First, she discussed theWorld Health Organization's (WHO) Global Burden of Disease Project, whichlooks at the most disabling conditions across the world and the impact they have on global health. She stated that in 2000, the top 5 most disabling conditions were:

Lower respiratory infections (pneumonia)
Perinatal conditions
HIV/AIDS
Major depression
Diarrheal diseases

I checked the WHO website, and found that their report has been updatedwith data from2004. Depression has actually moved up to the third most disabling condition worldwide. What I found quite interesting is this paragraph in their report:

"Unipolar depression makes a large contribution to the burden of disease, being at third place worldwide and eighth place in low-income countries but at first place in middle- and high-income countries. Effective treatments for depression are available, suggesting that this burden could be reduced."

I often hear those who don't believe that depression is a real illness state that it is purely a Westernphenomenon and doesn't exist in other places. Clearly that is not the case, if even in low-income countries it is the eighth most disabling conditionamong the 135 illnesses that were studied. For your clarification, here's a sampling of which countries are listed in each category:

High-Income: US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Israel, Finland, Iceland, UK, Aruba, Puerto Rico

Middle-Income: Argentina, Chile, Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, Egypt, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Ukraine

Low-Income: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Congo, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Sudan, Vietnam

In the year 2030, the WHO estimates that depression will move into #1 as THE most disabling condition across the globe. Ischemic heart disease will be second, traffic accidents third andcerebrovascular disease [stroke] fourth.

Depression is not just disabling. The awesome Dr. Ruta Nonacs of the MGH Center for Women's Mental Health sent me a studyappearing in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatrystating that depression and smoking create the same increased risks for mortality! From Medscape:

"'We were a bit surprised to find that depression — and not necessarily at a severe level — is associated with mortality at the same strength as smoking,' lead author Arnstein Mykletun, PhD, from the University of Bergen, Norway, told Medscape Psychiatry. 'Perhaps one of the more important new findings is that depression is that strong, even taking into account a lot of potential confounding factors including health status,' he added."

In the same article, Dr. Peter Kramer from Brown Universitycommented that this study, which was large and very thorough, is worth paying attention to. "Depression, he said, is a multisystem disease that involves changes not only in the brain but also in blood vessels, heart, and bones. 'Of the major common mental illnesses, depression really stands out as looking like ordinary disease across a number of body systems.'"

So now we turn to women. When it comes to women, the WHO states:

"Mental disorders are an important source of lost years of healthy life for women aged 15-44 years. They make up 3 of the 10 leading causes of disease burden in low- and middle-income countries, and 4 of the leading 10 in high-income countries; self-inflicted injuries are also in the leading 10 causes for low- and middle-income countries. [Those disorders include depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and panic disorder.]"

What does this have to do with postpartum depression? Women are more likey to have theirfirst psychiatric admission in the first year postpartum than at any other time in their lives.

Dr. Burt explained that there are two major buckets contributing to why women are more likely to suffer from depression than men. The first is biological. We are sensitive to hormonal changes that are happening all of the time in our bodiesand can affect mood. We have quite a few major reproductive-related transitions in our bodies, includingthe timing of puberty, our prementrual days each month, miscarriage, pregnancy and perimenopause. (Constant hormonal turmoil!) The second is psychosocial. A traumatic history such as parental loss, divorce, marital discord, illness, assault and other such traumas can impact the likelihood of depression, as can childhood developmental issues like poor parental attachment. Childbearing responsibilities and a young maternal age, as well as negative self image, also raise the risk of depression in women.

Depression is real, no matter where you are on the planet, and women are at the greatest risk. Don't ignore it. Get help.

August 17, 2009 9:51 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Depression Statistics

Study Finds Significant Numbers of Women Experiencing Depression Symptoms Postpartum

By Katherine Stone August 5, 2008

Childbirth Connection, a leading national not-for-profit organization that works to improve the quality of maternity care, today released "New Mothers Speak Out, National Survey Results Highlight Women's Postpartum Experiences." The combined survey results from two "Listening to Mothers" surveys provide an in-depth look at women's postpartum experiences during the first eighteen months after giving birth.

The survey utilized validated tools to screen for postpartum depression and traumatic stress associated with childbirth, and found that notable portions of mothers experienced symptoms of depression and of traumatic stress many months after giving birth, according to Reuters.

"Postpartum mothers experience a troubling burden of physical and emotional health challenges after giving birth. Although many of these problems abate over time, far too many women were still experiencing them from 6 to 18 months after birth. With more than 4.3 million births each year in the United States, it is an urgent priority to better understand the reason for these challenges, their implications for women and their families, ways to prevent distress and morbidity, and ways to help women and families before they experience detrimental effects," stated Maureen Corry, MPH, Executive Director of Childbirth Connection.

The study also looked into breastfeeding experiences, co-sleeping, social support from others and maternity leave benefits and employment issues.

"The overall picture is of recent mothers engaged in a juggling act, carrying multiple and sometimes conflicting responsibilities while experiencing high levels of social, physical and emotional health challenges. There are concerns about whether large segments of this population have access to adequate health and social services and social support. We are letting our mothers and babies down at one of the most critical and vulnerable times in their lives. These survey results are a clarion call to action for programs, policies, clinical services, and research to better understand and improve the experiences of new mothers and their families," said Corry.

The "Listening to Mothers Postpartum" survey reached 903 U.S. women, ages 18-45, who gave birth in a hospital to a single infant in 2005, with the infant still living at the time of the survey. The survey was carried out by Childbirth Connection, a national non-profit focused on improving the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy and policy, in partnership with Lamaze International and conducted by Harris Interactive. The "New Mothers Speak Out" report, along with survey questionnaires, details about the survey methodology and related documents, are available at www.childbirthconnection.org/newmothersspeakout/

Click here for more statistics on postpartum depression.

August 5, 2008 3:24 pm Filed Under: Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Depression Statistics

Do New CDC Statistics Underestimate Real PPD Numbers?

By Katherine Stone April 14, 2008

I've been thinking more about the latest statistics on PPD in the U.S. recently released by the CDC. As I wrote last week, the report included information from women in 17 states who responded either "often" or "always" to the following questions:

Since your new baby was born, how often have you felt down, depressed, or hopeless?
Since your new baby was born, how often have you had little interest or little pleasure in doing things?

The study found that women with PPD were more likely to be younger, less educated, and in financial or emotional stress. In response, Postpartum Progress reader and total warrior chick Kim pointed out the following:

I wonder where I fit in? 36 year old non-smoking woman with happy marriage, financially stable, and a master's degree… I would think I was an anomaly but the few woman I know who have gone through it are all more like me. Strange.

A similar thought occurred to me when I was looking at the data. I was 32 when I had my son, had been married 8 years and happily planned for this birth, was completely financially stable and had a great career and a college degree. And lots of the women I know who've gone through PPD are like that as well. From the women I've talked to around the country and across the world, it seems like people from all backgrounds are highly vulnerable. Are there risk factors that make it more likely for some people than for others? Sure. But this does lead me to ask the following question: Are those women who happen to have more education, better finances and more stable environments just less likely to self-report?

And if the CDC states that the percentage of women in the U.S. who experience PPD is probably somewhere in the 15% range based on the number of women who self-report, what must the percentage REALLY be, considering how many of us dare not open our mouths to self-report out of fear? I mean, this is not like self-reporting a sore throat or headaches. Postpartum mood disorders are the kind of illness that lots of people aren't interested in volunteering personal information about. Could the true number of new moms in the U.S. suffering these illnesses be more like 20% to 25%? More?

Click here for more information on PPD statistics.

April 14, 2008 10:15 pm Filed Under: Postpartum Depression, Postpartum Depression Statistics

CDC Releases Latest Statistics on PPD Today

By Katherine Stone April 10, 2008

Per Miranda Hitti at WebMD, the CDC today issued its latest statistics on postpartum depression, and the figures show that certain groups of women may be at higher risk. The CDC’s report included more than 52,000 new moms in 17 states. The prevalence of self-reported postpartum depression ranged from 11.7% in Maine to 20.4% in New Mexico. Postpartum depression was more often reported by teenage moms, mothers with less than 12 years of education, Medicaid patients, smokers, victims of physical abuse before or during pregnancy, and women under traumatic or financial stress during pregnancy. Having a low-birth-weight baby or a baby admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit was also tied to self-reported postpartum depression in most of the 17 states.

The postpartum depression statistics, published in the April 11 edition of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, don’t separate women who became depressed after giving birth from women who were already depressed before pregnancy.

The CDC urges women to get treatment for postpartum depression for the sake of mother and baby alike.

The CDC also notes that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that doctors screen all new moms for postpartum depression four to six weeks after birth.

P.S. Here’s a link to the Wall Street Journal’s health blog’s coverage of the CDC report on postpartum depression.

April 10, 2008 2:43 pm Filed Under: Postpartum Depression Statistics

Postpartum Depression By The Numbers

By Katherine Stone January 11, 2008

Quick, guess which number is higher: the number of people who sprain an ankle each year, the number of people who have a stroke, or the number of women who experience postpartum depression?

PPD. Surprised?

So let's split the difference between the high (20%) and low estimates of PPD (11%) and say that an average of 15% of all postpartum women in the US suffer, as the CDC reported in its 2008 PRAMS research. And let's use the number of clinically recognized pregnancies and not live births. This would mean that each year approximately 950,000 women are suffering postpartum depression.

BUT, did you know the CDC's research only reflected self-reported cases of postpartum depression? How many women do you think did not mention they had PPD out of fear or shame? Should we increase the estimate of sufferers to 17% or 20%?

ALSO, these numbers don't take into account women who may have suffered other perinatal mood and anxiety disorders like PPOCD or postpartum psychosis. Should that make the numbers go even higher?

I'd argue that the number of new mothers who experience perinatal mood and anxiety disorders is in the 20% range, which would mean around 1.3 million.

How does that compare with the incidence among women of other major diseases in America?

Each year less women — approximately 800,000 — will get diabetes. (Nat'l Diabetes Information Clearinghouse)
Each year about 300,000 women suffer a stroke. (Centers for Disease Control)
Each year approximately 205,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. (National Cancer Institute)

In fact, more women will suffer from postpartum depression and related illnesses this year than the combined number of new cases for men and women of tuberculosis, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and epilepsy. This is not to minimize these other terrible diseases, of course. I simply want to illustrate just how prevalent postpartum mood disorders are.

Dr. Ruta Nonacs of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School adds, "Postpartum depression is far more common than gestational diabetes. All women receiving prenatal care are screened for diabetes, but how many pregnant and postpartum women are screened for depression? PPD is also more common than preterm labor, low birth weight, pre-eclampsia and high blood pressure; in other words, PPD is the most common complication associated with pregnancy and childbirth."

Let me leave you with one last thought: More women will suffer from PPD than men will be diagnosed with new cases of impotence (617,715) this year. Yet you wouldn't know it, considering the overabundance of erectile dysfunction (ED) ads and people falling all over themselves to discuss ED openly. Why doesn't PPD get the same attention from pharmaceutical companies?

Why doesn't society work as hard to eliminate the stigma of postpartum mental illness? Why aren't more companies concerned about PPD?

This really is a big problem, and deserves much more attention than it's getting.

Click here for more information on postpartum depression statistics.

January 11, 2008 11:38 am Filed Under: Postpartum Depression Statistics

Results Out on Kaiser Permanente Study on Depression Before, During & After Pregnancy

By Katherine Stone October 2, 2007

According to a new study from Kaiser Permanente, more than one in seven women are depressed in the nine months before pregnancy, during their pregnancy, or in the nine months after giving birth. Highlights from an article on the study on WebMD:

The new research expands on information already known about depression after childbirth. "People have known for quite a while that postpartum depression is a serious, sometimes devastating event," says researcher Evelyn Whitlock, MD, MPH, senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. "One of the things we were able to do is look across the spectrum — nine months before pregnancy, the nine months of pregnancy, and the nine months postpartum. I think this is the first study to do that" …

The study, with an accompanying editorial urging more research, is published in the October issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Whitlock and her colleagues evaluated 4,398 women, all members of the Kaiser Permanente HMO, who had given birth between 1998 and 2001.

Before pregnancy, 8.7% were identified as depressed by their health care providers; 6.9% were classified as depressed during the pregnancy, and 10.4% were depressed in the nine months after delivery. In all, 15.4%, or more than one in seven of the women, were depressed during at least one of the three periods.

About half of the women who had postpartum depression also were depressed before the pregnancy occurred or during pregnancy. More than half of those depressed before pregnancy became depressed during the pregnancy, suggesting the condition is not temporary or relieved by getting pregnant or by giving birth.

Whitlock also found that 93.4% of those with pregnancy-related depression had seen a mental health provider and/or gotten antidepressants. About 77% of women took an antidepressant before becoming pregnant, 67% during pregnancy, and 82% after giving birth. Since the study, reports of possible side effects of antidepressant use during pregnancy, including lung problems and heart problems in newborns, have been published. As a result, doctors emphasize that a careful evaluation of the risks and benefits is crucial before deciding on an antidepressant during pregnancy …