On August 30, the prestigious international journal British Medical Journal officially published the series album “Promotion of Health for Chinese Women,” featuring a special article by Professor Jiang Fan from the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the National Children’s Medical Center (Shanghai) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, along with the team of Associate Researcher Zhang Yunting from the Children’s Health Management Institute, discussing the significant role of postpartum maternal mental health screening and management in child healthcare.
Global burden of disease studies show that mental disorders remain one of the top ten leading causes of disease worldwide, with no significant decrease in incidence from 1990 to 2019. Compared to other periods, the incidence of depression among women is highest in the weeks, months, or year following childbirth. In high-income countries, the prevalence of postpartum depression is approximately 13%, while in low- and middle-income countries, it can reach up to 20%, affecting a significant portion of women in their peak reproductive years. In China, the prevalence of postpartum depression is about 18%. A large body of research evidence shows that postpartum depression has a significant impact on women’s health, and since postpartum depression occurs during a period when infants are completely dependent on parental care and are highly sensitive to the quality of parent-child interaction, it can impair children’s emotional, social, and cognitive development, subsequently affecting their long-term achievements and overall well-being. Therefore, this is a serious public health issue.
Incidence of postpartum depression and birth rates in different countries
In response to this women’s health challenge, obstetricians in clinical practice typically conduct postpartum depression screenings during pregnancy and within one month after childbirth. However, postpartum depression can occur at any time within the year following childbirth, and its symptoms may persist for a longer duration. The author team advocates for the continued provision of these services after the baby reaches one month old by reviewing current practices in postpartum depression screening and management and proposes that the maternal and child healthcare system, closely integrated with maternal healthcare, can provide good opportunities for conducting postpartum depression screenings and implementing intervention strategies at multiple time points. Additionally, the author team proposed a series of actionable pathways on how to integrate these services into child healthcare work and establish a continuous maternal and child healthcare system to ensure that postpartum depression patients in China receive sustained and comprehensive services.
Professor Jiang Fan’s research group in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and Shanghai Brain Science and Brain-like Research Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has long focused on early childhood development, recently conducting a series of relevant studies, mainly including the establishment of tools and monitoring platforms for early childhood development assessment, intervention studies, and policy research, achieving significant influence both domestically and internationally. The research group collaborates with UNICEF and WHO on multiple projects and is dedicated to researching intervention techniques and policy studies for early childhood development, with early results having won the first prize for scientific and technological progress from the Ministry of Education.
National Children’s Medical Center
Author Information
The first author of this article is Associate Researcher Zhang Yunting from the Children’s Health Management Institute at Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, with the corresponding author being Professor Jiang Fan, head of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Shanghai Children’s Medical Center. Other authors include doctoral students Wang Haiwa, Wu Saishuang, and postdoctoral fellow Xiao Yuyin from Stanford University in the United States.
