Are we missing opportunities to screen new moms for postpartum depression?

What is it about?

Pediatricians should screen mothers for postpartum depression when performing well child checks on babies. If infants need hospitalization, pediatric hospitalists and social workers often interact with the infant's mother but don't routinely screen the mom for signs of postpartum depression. We aimed to see if such screening and referral to mental health care could reduce screening scores over time. Since most babies do not need hospitalization, we also tried to determine if there were different risk factors in this population.

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Why is it important?

We showed that screening and referral from the hospital setting seemed to improve depression scores in moms at risk for postpartum depression (although all scores improved somewhat over time). Also infants with neurodevelopmental problems are associated with maternal depression risk.