Feeling down or anxious after the birth of a child – the “baby blues” – is common. Sometimes these feelings get pretty bad. The low mood doesn't go away, and can get intense. This is postpartum depression (PPD), and affects at least 1 woman in every 8 after the birth of a child. Rarely, women also develop psychosis in the postpartum period.

The goal of this research study is to understand more about the genetic basis of postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis. If we do this, we will learn a lot about the reasons why some women get postpartum depression or psychosis and other women do not.

This knowledge will help us figure out the causes and develop new treatments. We hope that we can one day prevent postpartum disorders from happening in the first place.

We are university-based clinicians and scientists dedicated to studying postpartum depression and psychosis. We need your help for this new and exciting project. We want to make the time to discovery for new treatments as short as possible.