Postpartum Depression: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Outcomes

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a serious mental health condition referring to depressive episodes beginning after childbirth. Recognizing the importance of depression occurring both in pregnancy and postpartum, currently, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition classifies a depression with a peripartum onset as a depressive episode beginning during pregnancy or within the first four weeks after birth. This book provides new research on the prevalence, risk factors and outcomes that postpartum depression has on women after childbirth.