Mental Health Care in the Perinatal Period: Australian Clinical Practice Guideline

Abstract

Studies in Australia and around the world have found that up to one in ten women experience depression during pregnancy and one in seven women in the year following birth. Anxiety disorders are also prevalent (around one in five women in both the antenatal and postnatal periods) and comorbidity with depression is high. Severe mental illnesses - schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder - are much less common than depression and anxiety disorders. All of these conditions have the potential to have a negative impact on outcomes for the mother and infant and for the family more broadly. This is more likely to occur when a mental health condition is combined with seriou..