Does late pregnancy depression predict post partum depression?

Ok - I admit I didn't read the article, but this topic is really interesting to me. My girlfriend always suffered from postpartum with her kids (she is diagnosed with depression and is on medication normally). Each bout with it seemed to be a bit worse. With her last baby - they had a bit of a scare after he was born. He turned blue and stopped breathing. Turns out the little bugger still thought he was in the womb :) He was fine. But in the moment - and a for a few moments - she was thinking the worst. She had HORRIBLE post-partum with this baby. HORRIBLE. Looking back on it, she believes this incident set a rocky foundation for her - and thus exacterbated (sp???) the post-partum depression. So I wouldn't be shocked to find that an onset of depression later on in the pregnancy would make one more susceptable to post partum. This of course from someone who has never experienced anything of the sort!!! But it's interesting.

I've read about antepartum depression and its connection to postpartum depression.I can't say one way or the other whether I have that connection. To be honest, I know I went through some PPD after the Munchkin was born and placed but that period of time is so "lost" in my memory. I have long periods of time that are simply "gone" to me. I also cannot separate what was PPD and what was adoption grief and loss. I do know that after both of my parented boys were born, the PPD was (and, sigh, is) difficult to handle. It was bad after Nick but it's been absolutely devastating in the months since Parker's birth.

I have periods of time that are gone but those are from growing up. I only have a few episodes after Supergirl's placement so I really don't know.

I have that same problem as well Jenna. I can't really tell you if I suffered from PPD after T was born and placed or if it was just the adoption related grief.

I have the same problem as Jenna and Tara. I don't know if I was suffering from postpartum depression or grief after the relinquishment. I was working as a peer counselor at an outreach center called the Youth Service Bureau at the time and went back to work about a week after my son was born. One of the counselors, who had actually been my juvenile probation officer when I was in foster care, made me see our staff psychiatrist because she thought I was depressed. I was staying at her house that week because my mother had taken off for a ski trip to Austria...the baby had just turned three weeks old. Anyway, she had a lot of time to observe me, and I guess my behavior was different or I was super quiet or something. So, Nicki and I both went into the shrink's office. He looked at me, asked me a few questions, asked Nicki a few questions, and then closed his eyes for a couple minutes. I couldn't figure out what in the world he was doing. When he opened his eyes, he looked at Nicki and said, "she's grieving for her baby". He then proceeded to tell me that he believed that when a girl or woman gave up her baby for adoption, she grieved the loss of the child much the same as if the child had died. Some of it made sense to me, but some of it didn't. As the years have gone by (36 years now), I have come to think of it more like being shell-shocked. Maybe I was showing grief, but I don't remember feeling it. I mainly remember feeling numb, but I think I've blocked a LOT of stuff out of my memory. I did go on to have a major clinical depression a few years later at the age of 21. And I've had several episodes since then. Sometimes it's hard to separate all the "professional" opinions...depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, dysthymia, cyclothymia. I do know that anytime I've been under treatment in my lifetime for severe depression, I've been really struggling with the adoption and its effects. But that is the one area that NONE of the shrinks or doctors would ever address or even talk to me about.

Raven, same here. I wasn't diagnosed but all the symptoms were there. Almost 30 years later I've come to the conclusion that adoption and its effects have impacted my life - well, let's just say, this isn't the life I thought I'd be living. Take care of yourself.