How to Have a Happier, Healthier, Smarter Baby
Upon reading this article (click on link above) posted on Yahoo from US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, a particular section caught my attention.
About 20 percent of pregnant women experience mood or anxiety disturbances, and at least 10 percent develop full-blown depression, according to your book. How does this affect the fetus?
Pregnant women who are depressed are more likely to deliver early and have babies with a low birth weight. The mother's emotional state can also influence the fetus's developing brain and nervous system, and potentially shape the way the baby will experience and manage its own emotions. Plus, babies born to depressed mothers are more likely to be irritable and have trouble sleeping. Pregnant women should be screened for depression, just as we screen for gestational diabetes.
When I talk to different groups about mental health, I try to stress that mental illness is just as diagnosable and treatable as physical illnesses like asthma or diabetes. What a concept... to think that we could truly avoid future mental health issues for our children just by recognizing a mother's own pre-natal depression. Gestational diabetes screening is a standard screening during pregnancy. What needs to be done to make depression screenings standard? I'll do some checking into that very idea.
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