Thank you.
Over the past few decades considerable evidence has accumulated to suggest that the risks associated with being born to an individual who struggles with postpartum depression are myriad. Children who are born into this setting are about three times as likely to experience a grade failure and significant school problems. They are four to five times as likely to develop clinically significant emotional and behavioural problems, and about four times as likely to develop depression in their lifetimes. These problems can begin as early as toddlerhood. The research that has followed individuals the longest suggests that this can persist well into adulthood.
Postpartum depression keeps individuals from becoming the parents they want to be. It disrupts the detachment bond. It makes it difficult for parents to respond in the ways they want to the cues of their children and it has a lifelong effect. The number I quoted earlier was from the United Kingdom. Each case of postpartum depression is associated with $125,000 in costs over the lifespan, 70% of which are due to these difficulties in offspring.