Women can experience positive and negative feelings related to pregnancy. Although to a degree being worried, anxious, depressed, stressed and mood swings during pregnancy can be normal, women can also develop depression and anxiety during pregnancy and postpartum depression after birth.

Depression is defined as sadness, feeling down or irritable for weeks or months at a time. Some women may have depression before getting pregnant and it may worsen during pregnancy. However depression can also start during pregnancy for many reasons. For example, if a woman isn’t happy about being pregnant due to the pregnancy not being planned.

Anxiety is a feeling of worry, fear, dreadfulness, and uneasiness over things that may happen. Although many of these feelings are common during pregnancy, if these feelings become excessive, all-consuming, and interfere with daily activities, this might be an indicator of an underlying condition such as anxiety.

Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common mental health illness observed after birth. Commonly, it is difficult to distinguish PPD from depression occurring at any other time in a woman’s life. However, negative thoughts are mainly related to the newborn with PPD. This condition is seen in 10–15 percent of women after birth (Rai et al., 2015). Furthermore, feelings of guilt or inadequacy about the new mother’s ability to care for the infant and all-consuming worry about the infant’s well-being or safety severe enough to be considered obsessional are common (Kendall et al., 1981). The onset of PPD ranges from a few days to a few weeks after delivery, but commonly in the first 2–3 months post childbirth. Women who have a history of major depression have a 25 percent increased risk for PPD. Additionally, past history of PPD increases the risk of recurrence to 50 percent (Henshaw, 2003).