Both generals and football coaches are fond of saying, "a good defense is a good offense." In their cases, they mean that aggressively attacking an opponent prevents them from attacking in their own right. The same philosophy can be used in addressing diseases, in this case postpartum depression (PPD).

While it might seem pessimistic to take the approach that either during or after a pregnancy a woman might suffer from PPD, keeping the thought in mind is advisable since as many as 80 percent of women experience some form of depression, or "baby blues," during this time. Taking precautions during pregnancy can lessen the severity of PPD or eliminate it all together.

Risk Assessment

The first step is to assess a woman's risk of being affected by PPD. Although risk assessment is not a diagnostic tool, it can serve to make a woman and her family aware that she might be susceptible to depression, thus giving her and her family a head start on heading the problem off at the pass, so to speak.

The leading factor that might lead to depression during pregnancy is previous incidents of depression or PPD. The reasoning here is simple, "if it happened before, it can happen again." This is true especially if a woman suffering from depression stops taking antidepressant medication during the pregnancy. This is true even though medical experts say many types of antidepressant medication have no ill effects on the developing baby, or at least are well tolerated.

Negative Effects

Medical experts also assert that untreated depression during pregnancy can be more harmful to the baby than taking antidepressants. Effects of stress and depression have been associated with low birth weights and poor health of infants. Therefore, women who have a history of depression and stop taking their medication after becoming pregnant need to take extra precautions.

Foremost, the expectant mother needs to discuss her condition with her doctor and develop a plan for handling any problems. This likely will involve counseling and possibly restarting or continuing drug treatment. Both are said to be very effective in ameliorating the effects of depression or even preventing it from becoming a serious problem. There also are alternative medication and nutritional therapies which have proven useful.

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