Review of postpartum depression: a pathology also for pediatricians?

Mood disorders during the postnatal period deserve a clinical attention for the pain they can cause as well as for the risk they imply for both mother and child. They represent a considerable risk factor for the child’s cognitive and emotional development( 1). As he regularly meets the mothers during the child’s first year of life, the pediatrician is the medical caregiver who has the best instruments to identify the depressed mother or those who risk to become depressed. Afterwards, the pediatrician will be able to coordinate any intervention (simply by supporting or, in more serious cases, by appealing to a specialist), as he always remains the point of reference for the mother. The training of the pediatrician is therefore essential: counseling at first, and the supervision of operators who support women suffering from postpartum depression, so that these caregivers can count on professionals properly trained and gifted for team work.