I recently saw an article pop up on my Facebook feed that said: women who take antidepressants during pregnancy are more likely to have children who are depressed.
I was furious to read something like this. Like seething. I think there may have been fire coming out of my eyes as I was yelling at my computer screen.
There are SO many things wrong with this statement I don't even know where to begin.
For one, depression has a genetic component so the fact that a woman took medications during pregnancy is likely not the reason why her child went on to develop depression. Depression is passed down in families and it's possible there was genetic loading that put the child at risk.
In addition, except in very rare cases, genetics alone do not cause depression.
Some people are more at risk of developing it than others, especially if they have a family history of depression, but that doesn't mean your child will 100% develop depression just because s/he will be born into a family that carries that history.
Lastly, I have never...NEVER...met a woman who didn't think 800 times before taking medications during her pregnancy.
There is absolutely NO need to be shaming her and making her feel even worse about this decision by a wildly inaccurate and blaming article like that.
There's SO much junk information out there and it infuriates me how it feeds into the fear-mongering that is prevalent in the fertility and pregnancy worlds!
Effectively managing depression during pregnancy is not just so you can feel better.
Yes, it's very important that you feel emotionally and physically well during pregnancy. Of course!
But depression during pregnancy is not just impacting you, it affects your pregnancy as well.
Untreated or mismanaged depression has been linked to spontaneous preterm labor, preterm delivery as well as low birthweight in babies...even for women who otherwise have no pregnancy complications.