As an expert in psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period, Veerle Bergink, MD, PhD, understands the importance of mental health, specifically during these periods in a woman’s life.
“The mental health of the mother has a major impact on her baby,” said Dr. Bergink, a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry, and Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Bergink, a faculty member at the Blavatnik Family Women’s Health Research Institute, noted how physical changes during pregnancy are intrinsically tied to the mom’s environment, her mental health, and the baby’s development.
In a video Q&A, Dr. Bergink discussed maternal mental health in observance of Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month in May 2019. Her research focuses on psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and she is currently developing a women’s mental health research program at Mount Sinai.
There is a difference between “Baby Blues” and postpartum depression, she says. “It is normal for women having a child to feel low now and then,” Dr. Bergink said about the prevalence of feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and sadness. But the symptoms of postpartum depression are more serious and can last longer. Dr. Bergink went on to discuss how anxiety and depression affect women during this period of high expectations, both from herself and the world around her and how loved ones can help the mom experiencing these symptoms get through them.
Dr. Bergink’s work also includes the association of primary education and maternal mental disorders, the mother’s use of lithium as treatment for mental disorders during breastfeeding, parental psychopathology as a risk factor for bipolar disorder and the importance of emergency care in preventing infanticide and suicide in the postpartum period.
We look forward to more cutting-edge women’s mental health research from Dr. Bergink!