LONDON - Health experts have sent out a strong warning saying that doctors and midwives should be more alert for signs of depression in pregnant women and new mothers.
The warning, coming from researchers from the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), added that doctors also needed to be on the lookout for women with eating disorders and anxiety disorders.
These guidelines also suggest that the Health Service needs to do more to tackle this issue. It added that mothers who had the need for psychiatric treatment should be examined in a month's time and again after another three months.
"Children who had mothers who had signs of anxiety tended not to do as well in terms of educational performance," said Steve Pilling, a consultant clinical psychologist at the University College London. "This impact is very significant if looked at overall across the country."
The treatments given to mothers may include counseling as well as anti-depressants, but the health worker needs to make the patients fully conversant with the effects of the medication on breastfeeding, the guidelines said.
Dr Gillian Leng, the lead author of these guidelines stressed that they were not only meant to ease baby blues, but also "all types of mental health disorders and distinguishing the ups and downs of everyday life for more serious conditions."
Other members of the team felt that women usually do not seek help for the fear of being branded a "bad mother."
