Anxiety Disorders in Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period

All new mothers are somewhat anxious. Being a mother is a new role, a new job, with a new person in your life and new responsibilities. Anxiety in response to this situation is very common and somewhat adaptive. However, for several reasons, some mothers have excessive worries and experience a severe (and invalidating) level of anxiety in perinatal period. Important gonadal steroid levels modifications have been reported, with as much as a 100-fold variation in serum estrogen levels and a 1000-fold change in serum proges‐ terone levels during pregnancy. These changes can exacerbate such emotional difficulties. Psychological factors may also have an important role to play in the development of anxiety disorders at this time. Often the expectant mother has concerns over the health of the child, the change in lifestyle likely to occur in her own life after the birth of the child (especially if the first child), her own ability to be a good mother, and finances. There are also instances where the pregnancy is unexpected or unwanted, which may further increase stress and anxiety [1].