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Home › Articles › Emotional and Mental Health › Ho, Ho, Humdrum

Ho, Ho, Humdrum

Holiday Blues and Pregnancy

By Jennifer Lacey

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The Depression Factor
Can the roller coaster of emotions caused by the holidays intensify into depression among women during the course of a pregnancy? The diagnosed depression statistics for women in the United States are staggering. The National Mental Health Association states that of the approximately 12 million women in the United States who experience clinical depression each year, at least 10 percent of pregnant women will suffer from bouts with depression.

Although they vary from person to person, several common signs and symptoms of depression during pregnancy may include the following:

  • Feelings of persistent anxiousness, sadness or emptiness
  • Excessive worries about your health as well as your developing baby's health
  • Panic attacks, with heart palpitations and shortness of breath
  • Loss of interest in activities that were once pleasurable
  • Disruption of regular sleeping patterns
  • Weight loss, gain or overeating
  • Decreased energy and fatigue
  • Difficulty in concentration or making decisions

"Depression during the perinatal period – during pregnancy and for up to one year postpartum – is often characterized by a lack of enjoyment of the things that the person used to enjoy, sadness, anxiety and, unfortunately, sometimes suicidal thoughts," says Samantha Meltzer-Brody, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and co-director of the Women's Perinatal Psychiatry Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The risk factors for an expectant woman to be diagnosed with a depressive illness can include a prior history of major depression at any time of life, but particularly in women with prior symptoms during the perinatal period. Dr. Meltzer-Brody adds that other factors such as "psychosocial stressors or poor social supports and a prior history of other psychiatric illness," also play a distinct role.


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