By Corinne Purtill, The New York Times, October 10, 2020
Over the course of her pregnancy, a woman receiving medical care in the United States can expect to be stuck with needles and prodded with ultrasound wands, to be asked to pee in countless cups and to gamely submit to any testing, measuring, monitoring or poking that might yield data on her body or the fetus.
When it comes to mental health, however, the medical care juggernaut comes to a screeching halt. In the United States, many expectant mothers get little more than a checklist of questions about their current mood or a cursory discussion with their provider.
The result is that emerging mental health problems often go unaddressed. Roughly one in seven women in the United States develop postpartum depression after delivering a child; an estimated 25 percent of those cases emerge during the pregnancy itself.
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