Proposal Seeks to Reframe Postpartum Depression as 'Perinatal Relational Distress'

Overview

• Published in Neuropsychiatrie de l’enfance et de l’adolescence, the proposal argues that prevailing labels and screening practices overlook relational and social drivers of perinatal distress.
• It challenges a binary depressed versus not‑depressed model, describing new parenthood as a spectrum of vulnerability and adjustment.
• The widely used Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale is criticized for focusing on maternal mood while missing the parent–child bond, social support and identity shifts.
• The authors say antidepressants, sometimes prescribed after diagnosis, do not address the relational causes underlying many cases of distress.
• They recommend reorganizing fragmented services toward relationship‑centered interventions such as parent–child interaction therapy, video‑feedback support, trained teams, accessible post‑natal spaces and designated support figures, noting the proposal is not universally accepted.