Mental health problems in women during pregnancy and after childbirth and their adverse consequences for child health and development have received sustained detailed attention in high-income countries. In contrast, evidence has only been generated more recently in resource-constrained settings.In June 2007 the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization, the Key Centre for Wo...

The perinatal period is a time of high risk for women with unipolar and bipolar mood disorders. We discuss treatment considerations for perinatal mood disorders, including unipolar and bipolar depression as well as postpartum psychosis. We further explore the unique issues faced by women and their families across the full trajectory of the perinatal period from preconception planning through pr...

Perinatal exposure to maternal obesity and high-fat diet (HFD) consumption not only poses metabolic risks to offspring but also impacts brain development and mental health. Using a non-human primate model, we observed a persistent increase in anxiety in juvenile offspring exposed to a maternal HFD. Postweaning HFD consumption also increased anxiety and independently increased stereotypic behavi...

Male-partnered sexual minority women (SMW) have received little research attention, despite the fact that they represent a large proportion of SMW - particularly child-bearing SMW. Male-partnered SMW are less "out" than female-partnered SMW and will likely be "read" as heterosexual by perinatal providers. Given this, and evidence that pregnant women have unique mental health care needs, the cur...

BACKGROUND Treatment coverage for mental disorders ranges from less than 10% to more than 90% across low- and middle-income (LAMI) countries. Studies have yet to examine whether the capacity of mental health systems might be adversely affected by the burdens of unrelated conditions such as HIV/AIDS. AIMS To examine whether the magnitude of disease burden from communicable, perinatal, maternal...

BACKGROUND In low- and middle-income countries little is known about changes in women's mental health status from the perinatal period to 15 months postpartum or the factors associated with different trajectories. AIMS To determine the incidence and rates of recovery from common mental disorders (CMD) among rural Vietnamese women and the risk and protective factors associated with these outco...

INTRODUCTION Women living with HIV experience a disproportionate burden of mental health issues. To date, global guidelines contain insufficient guidance on mental health support, particularly regarding perinatal care. The aim of this article is to describe the extent and impact of mental health issues as experienced by women living with HIV on their sexual and reproductive health and human rig...

Perinatal depression among Black Caribbean women in the UK remains an intriguingly under-researched topic. Despite high levels of known psychosocial risks, Black Caribbeans remain relatively invisible among those seeking/receiving help for depression during and after pregnancy. In-depth interviews were undertaken with a purposive sample of twelve Black Caribbean women selected from a lager samp...

Research by health psychologists is changing what we know about perinatal depression. In this guest editorial, the author examines depression in pregnant and breastfeeding women in light of this recent research and describes four major findings that are influencing how we think about depression in new mothers: inflammation has an etiologic role in depression, a relationship exists between sleep...

Mothers and newborns in Canada are supported by programs that address their needs from pre-conception to the perinatal period and beyond. Often, these programs target one or more at-risk groups of mothers: those with pre-existing health conditions such as diabetes, hypertension or mental health concerns; women with unhealthy pre-pregnancy weights; Aboriginal women; or women of an age outside th...