About 30% of women who were pregnant or gave birth from January to September 2020 showed signs that they were at risk of suffering from depression, a figure three times the average number, according to a poll conducted amid the coronavirus pandemic by the Japanese Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The poll asked the women to answer an international questionnaire to identify postpartum depression. The poll was conducted online in September 2020, and about 8,000 valid responses were received.
The poll found 34% of pregnant women and 29% of women after childbirth were possibly suffering from depression. Previous polls in Japan and abroad have found about 10% of such women tend to be depressed.
"I think many expectant and nursing mothers are feeling more anxious because they refrain from going out and are less connected to others due to the spread of the coronavirus," said Yokohama City University Prof. Etsuko Miyagi, who compiled the poll's results. "They need support from the people around them so they don't have to face their worries alone."
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