Thank you, Fleur and Ann, for your quick responses. As it happens, I
was already aware of these excellent sources of information about PPD.
I should have been clearer when I wrote the post.

My concern was aroused by the latest Hathor offering:
 Help Stop the Mothers Act!
http://www.thecowgoddess.com/?p=869 which refers to the proposed
MOTHERS Act (S. 1375)

The concern is that the bill would force many women to be medicated
unnecessarily while they are pregnant.

Here is an except from the critiques:
>There is no language in the bill that protects thousands of mothers
being erroneously screened and drugged with antidepressants that
medical studies show cause birth defects and withdrawal symptoms,
devastating families and driving up health care costs to treat these
iatrogenic-caused conditions.

The bill seeks more appropriations to the National Institutes of
Health to research postpartum depression but doesn't specify how the
funds are to be used. For example, during the past 3 years, NIMH has
already spent more than $10 million on 38 studies of PPD, yet the
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine lists no
grants on its website for such research.

There is no language about the diverse medical opinion and studies
about "post partum depression" and whether it exists as a mental
disability or as a physical condition that can be treated by normal
medical or alternative means.

While the bill promotes more research into the condition, it doesn't
provide safeguards about this research and the effects of biological
agents on the fetus–with studies suggesting that antidepressants may
exert an impact on developmental processes of the embryo, and cause
higher rates of premature delivery, low birth weight, admissions to
intensive care units, and poor neonatal adaptation, including
respiratory and feeding difficulties in infants.

The way in which the bill is currently worded could lead to thousands
of suits as hundreds have already been filed concerning antidepressant
use during pregnancy that has resulted in infants being born with a
life-threatening lung disorder, PPHN and that between 10% and 20% of
infants born with PPHN end up dying, even when they receive treatment.
<

Comments?

norma

Norma Ritter, IBCLC, RLC

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