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Nancy Byatt quoted in a Commonwealth Magazine article about identifying mothers at risk for postpartum depression

Date Posted: Tuesday, April 21, 2015

ā€œBeyond baby blues: Advocates want to create a postpartum depression safety net for new mothers before tragedy strikes, but universal screening is not an easy sell.ā€  

Postpartum depression often goes undetected. Left untreated, depression can lead to complications, including pre-eclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy), premature birth, and low birth-weight babies. After the first year, a motherā€™s depression can lead to her children having anxieties or being prone to disruptive behavior, according to Nancy Byatt, a psychiatrist who is the medical director for the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project for Moms. ā€œIf a child has mental health or behavior concerns, they donā€™t usually go away when [that person] becomes a preteen,ā€ says Byatt.

Read the article