OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 28 (UPI) -- More than one in seven U.S. women are depressed at some time during the nine months before becoming pregnant, during pregnancy or after childbirth.

The study, published in the October issue of The American Journal of Psychiatry, also found that more than half of the women who experienced postpartum depression had been depressed before becoming pregnant or during pregnancy.

"These findings show we need to pay more attention to depression before pregnancy," study co-author Dr. Evelyn Whitlock, senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, said in a statement.

"Doctors and the public tend to focus more on postpartum depression because of the huge gap between a new mother's joyful expectations and the crushing reality of depression."

Investigators at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research profiled 4,398 women who gave birth from 1998 to 2001 and found 8.7 percent were identified as depressed in the nine months before pregnancy, 6.9 percent during pregnancy and 10.4 percent in the nine months following childbirth.

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Source (http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070928-19404400-bc-us-pregnancydepression.xml)

I'm not sure I can agree with that number, only 7? Are they sure? I would really like to know how they go about finding these statistic, I would think it would seriously be more than just 1. That seems a bit too unreal for me.

I'd figure that all pregnant women get depressed some time during their pregnancy, especially for first time mothers. That's what I think anyway.

Yes I'm sure they can, but that does seem like a low number. I wonder if they are only counting those mothers with severe cases of the "Baby blues" or the ones that start taking medicine, etc.

It really is a low figure, so low in fact that I am not sure that I quite trust it. I have read other things that suggest it is more like a third of women, so I would really like to see the criteria they used here.

My mother had this issue too, she was mostly a single parent for all of my childhood, after my little brother was born, and had tons of stress. I have felt down abit too in the first few months, but with the help of family and friends its alot better now than it was before. If you can get help, please do, its alot better to have the support and not need it, that need it and not have it. :)

I'm sorry but that figure looks horribly low-very misleading I think. I know that I have struggled on and off throughout this pregnancy, and most of my friends did at some point too. My mother did, my sister too. I don't know anyone who was always happy, start to finish.