Reducing Pain during Delivery Decreases Postpartum Depression

Reducing pain during and after childbirth can help lower risk of postpartum depression.

According to Katherine Wisner, M.D., a Northwestern Medicine® perinatal psychiatrist, women who have epidural anesthesia during childbirth have lower rates of depression than women who weren't given epidural.

Wisner's article on the subject was based on a study conducted in China."Maximizing pain control in labor and delivery with your obstetrician and anesthesia team might help reduce the risk of postpartum depression," Wisner said.

Postpartum can affect women a few months to a year after childbirth. However, many women experience depression after about three months post-delivery, Medline Plus states.

About 14 to 23 percent of women have some symptoms of depression even during pregnancy. Around one in five women suffer from postpartum depression one year after childbirth.

The Chinese study found that women who used epidural during labor had a 14 percent rate of depression at six weeks after childbirth compared to 35 percent rate of depression in women who didn't use epidural.

Also, women who were give pain relievers during childbirth were more likely to breastfeed their babies than others.

"Pain control gets the mother off to a good beginning rather than starting off defeated and exhausted," Wisner said in a news release. "Whether it's vaginal or cesarean section delivery, pain control postpartum is an issue for all new mothers. There is no way to have a delivery without pain. The objective here is to avoid severe pain. Controlling that delivery pain so a woman can comfortably develop as a mother is something that makes a lot of sense."

The study and the editorial by Wisner are published in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia.