Nancy Byatt quoted in a Commonwealth Magazine article about identifying mothers at risk for postpartum depression
Date Posted: Tuesday, April 21, 2015“Beyond baby blues: Advocates want to create a postpartum depression safety net for new mothers before tragedy strikes, but universal screening is not an easy sell.”
Postpartum depression often goes undetected. Left untreated, depression can lead to complications, including pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy), premature birth, and low birth-weight babies. After the first year, a mother’s depression can lead to her children having anxieties or being prone to disruptive behavior, according to Nancy Byatt, a psychiatrist who is the medical director for the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project for Moms. “If a child has mental health or behavior concerns, they don’t usually go away when [that person] becomes a preteen,” says Byatt.
