Wisconsin Community Mental Health Counseling Centers, Inc.

Study: Dads Get Postpartum Depression Research Says 14% Of Mothers, 10% Of Fathers Suffer Symptoms
(From WebMD) After years studying postpartum depression in new moms, a recent study suggests that new dads can get depressed, too. About 14 percent of mothers and 10 percent of fathers suffer from moderate or severe postpartum depression, according to the study in the August issue of the jounal Pediatrics. More incapacitating than the ‘baby blues,” postpartum depression is marked by severe sadness or emptiness, withdrawal from famiiy and friends, a strong sense of failure, and even thoughts of suicide. These emotions can begin two or three weeks after birth and can last up to a year or longer if untreated.
“Postpartum depression in fathers was strikingly high and more than twice as common than in the general adult male population in the U.S.,” wnte researchers including James F. Paulson, Ph.D., of the Center for Pediatric Research at the Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va. As a result, pediatricians must make a greater effort to screen moms and dads for postpartum depression, they say.

Postpartum Depression Does Not Discriminate
Researchers reviewed data on more than 5,000 two-parent families with children aged 9 months and found that with both parents depressed, babies were less likely to be put to bed lying on their back, ever to be breastfed, and more likely to have been put to sleep with a bottle. Pediatricians recommend that babies be put to sleep on their backs to prevent sudden infant death syndrome. Depressed mothers were about 1.5 times less likely to engage in preventive health behaviors such as breastfeeding and placing a child on his or her back to sleep, and/or more likely to put their babies to bed with a bottle. They were less likely to read to their babies, tell stories, or sing songs if depressed.