User:Emilia.boleyn/sandbox

Among one of the most common sources of morbidity associated with childbirth, postpartum depression is a major global public health issue. PPD varies in prevalence worldwide. Research has found that globally postpartum depression is found to be approximately 17.7% prevalence when analyzing data from low- to high-income countries. Across various nations, the prevalence of PPD varied even within nations with similar wealth status. However, between the nations a predictor for high postpartum depression rates were found to be wealth disparities within the nations. Those who live at a dramatically different level of material standards than the other’s in their society, even if objectively they are not low income, were found to predict the higher rates.

Within the United States, the prevalence of postpartum depression was lower than the global approximation at 11.5% but varied between states from as low as 8% to as high as 20.1%. The highest prevalence in the US is found among women who are American Indian/Alaska Natives or Asian/Pacific Islanders, possess less than 12 years of education, are unmarried, smoke during pregnancy, experience over two stressful life events, or who’s full term infant is low-birthweight or was admitted to a Newborn Intensive Care Unit. While US prevalence decreased from 2004 to 2012, it did not decrease among American Indian/Alaska Native women or those with full term, low-birthweight infants.

Even with the variety of studies, it is difficult to find the exact rate as approximately 60% of US women are not diagnosed and of those diagnosed approximately 50% are not treated for PPD. Cesarean section rates did not affect the rates of PPD. While there is discussion of postpartum depression in father’s, there is no formal diagnosis for postpartum depression in fathers.

Most studies regarding are done using self-report screenings which are less reliable than clinical interviews. This use of self-report may have results that underreport symptoms and thus postpartum depression rates.