Psychopathology Across Pregnancy and the Puerperium

Abstract

One of the major purposes of our study was to evaluate the adjustment of childbearing women across pregnancy and the puerperium as compared to the adjustment of a similar group of nonchildbearing women followed over a comparable period. In the next two chapters, the results of those comparisons will be described. In this chapter I will report on the personal and family history of psychopathology of childbearing and nonchildbearing subjects and the rates of diagnosed depression in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy and the first 9 weeks postpartum. The levels of depressive symptomatology and other types of psychiatric symptomatology in subjects across pregnancy and the puerperium will also be reported.