Postnatal Depression

Postnatal depression affects about 13 per cent of women within the first year of childbirth and is equally spread world-wide. Childbearing is one of the most complex events in human experience and can lead to increased vulnerability of women due to psychological and physical changes. Many distinct disorders are seen and it is important to identify severe disorders of the mother-baby relationship which usually respond to treatment, but have pernicious effects if untreated.
It is vital to implement awareness through information and to fight stigma through cultural changes. Prevention of Postnatal Depression in possible combining antenatal and postnatal screening, enabling early intervention and offering appropriate support. This can be provided by multidisciplinary teams and professionals involving fathers, families, voluntary agencies and groups. GPs are at the core of the intervention and they should have a central role in directing and monitoring the multidisciplinary teams involved due to complexity of post-partum disorders and due to the challenges of therapy, prevention, training, research and service development.)
We can lean about risk factors and how to detect them. Prediction and detection of early signs can dramatically improve the outcome of treatment which should include psychosocial and biological modalities. Social support, involvement of fathers, psychological support, access to appropriate and specific services, cultural changes, reduction of stigma and better awareness can allow mothers to increase their self-esteem and improve mother-infant interaction and bonding.
We will describe a range of different services provided by NHS in UK and by SSN in Trieste/Italy.