On day 3 after the birth when I first started noticing the symptoms of postpartum moodiness or
depression at its infancy the capsules arrived and almost immediately after taking them Laurentine was on high for hours and feeling like superwoman!
Which is really too bad because we have an urgent problem in America: our maternal mortality rate is among THE HIGHEST in the industrialized world (depending on the index you look
at), our infant mortality rates are unacceptable, the inequalities in the way women of color and poor women are treated is literally a human right crisis, our new moms suffer from postpartum
depression mores than so many other countries, and in many ways we have taken the joy and awe out of childbirth and
infancy.
Maternal
depression is demonstrated to contribute to multiple early child developmental problems, including impaired cognitive, social and academic functioning.3 - 6 Children of depressed mothers are
at least two to three times more likely to develop adjustment problems, including mood disorders.3 Even in
infancy, children of depressed mothers are more fussy, less responsive to facial and vocal expressions, more inactive and have elevated stress hormones compared to infants of non-depressed mothers.7, 8 Accordingly, the study of child development in the context of maternal
depression is a great societal concern and has been a major research direction for early childhood developmental researchers for the past several decades.