""SSRI drugs are very helpful medications for many moms so understanding and ameliorating difficulties moms experience can help them achieve their goals for breast-feeding their babies," Horseman said. "More human research is needed before we can make specific recommendations regarding SSRI use during breast-feeding.""

This is at the end of the article. So this doctor still doesn't know about birth defects caused by SSRIs.
Amazing!
This is criminal!

The more that comes out about SSRI use in pregnancy/postpartum, the more I realize I made the right decision in avoiding treatment for my depression when I was pregnant.

I would have forced into taking an SSRI for sure, even if I was in therapy. That's just the way moderate to severe depression is treated in pregnant women in the Seattle area. While you can refuse drugs, there is a constant pressure to take them. As a Neonatal ICU nurse, I have treated many infants for side effects from Mom's SSRI use. I struggle with the risk/benefit balance.

This is good to know. I'm hoping to get pregnant this year and am planning to stop all my meds. It can be a tough decision, but I'm feeling confident that I can make it those months without meds. My doctor reminded me that most women are naturally happier during pregnancy because of the hormonal changes. I hope so!

"I would have forced into taking an SSRI for sure, even if I was in therapy."

Amazonmom, you bring up a good point. When i started therapy at age 18 they all pushed and pushed meds. Complicating the situation was the fact that i was ambivalent about getting better. When i did give in and start Paxil, i thought i was being proactive and taking charge of my health. Meds being touted, of course, as The Ultimate Solution. I am sorry to hear that this is still the way they are portrayed in the mental health profession.

In retrospect, i don't think my counselor knew what to do with me. I was intensely suicidal, a cutter, and i hated asking for help. It must have been uncomfortable for her to work with (and begin caring about) someone so troubled and resistant. I think having me on medication gave the professionals the impression that they were _doing something_, but it didn't help me, at the time.

On a different note, even if there was no risk of birth defects, i would not want my newborn baby to go through withdrawals if i could help it. I've missed doses and ended up too sick to even drive myself home from work. I'm not surprised to hear that some of these babies end up in NICU.

turns out postpartum depression can also interfere a bit with breastfeeding, right? For all those brave moms who stood up to those mean doctors trying to force them to... oh my, >treat (Or is this just part of the pharma conspiracy too, trying to sell more generic antidepressants...?)

"While you can refuse drugs, there is a constant pressure to take them."

Yes Amazonmom! It amazes me how easy is to indoctrinate people.
"Antidepressants are good. Take them."
"Tobacco is evil. Hate it and fight those who smoke."
"Axis of evil. We have to fight them."
blah blah blah...

This is the era of information and Internet makes it possible to share informations. Still the official media sites prevail. Sometimes I say I research the alternative media and people don't know what I am talking about.

This is sad.

That's one way of getting them on medication early

Psychiatry: No Cures No Science [4 mins]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHu7Ik36128
Psychiatrists openly admitting at the 2006 APA convention that they have no scientific tests to prove mental illness and have no cures for these unproven mental illnesses.

There is no published efficacy data indicating that antidepressants are effective for depression in pregnant women. There is a decent set of studies showing that psychotherapy is effective for depression in pregnant women. Why are pills being pushed, but talk therapy is not?

Talk therapy is expensive and can be difficult to find. My therapist has a fee of $125 per hour. I am lucky to have days off during the week so that I can fit in her schedule. Since I am bipolar I get unlimited therapy but my copay is still $30 a visit. Therapists with experience in the childbearing experience have waitlists and very few slots on weekends or evenings. At least you can take the baby with you to session.

I can get a month's worth of many SSRIs or other antidepressants for $4 a month. Others will cost me 10 bucks a month. Any MD or NP can prescribe them. Drugs are the most accessible treatment in terms of cost and availability.

I do not believe that drugs have no place in the treatment of pregnant/postpartum women. I just wish the docs/therapists/etc wouldn't state that the drugs are safe! Patients hear safe and think that nothing can happen. The paternalistic filtering of information given to the patient is what makes me angry. Yes, most of the time a mom on anti depressants is going to have a healthy child. But then there is the mom that looks at me with tears in her eyes saying "but the doctor said it was safe". (All of my antidepressant exposed patients have gone home healthy within a few days)

" Why are pills being pushed, but talk therapy is not?"

Because it's a billion dollar drug industry!

Actually caveman, they're not pushing generic anti-depressants anymore.... or haven't you noticed all the bad news about them, right as they've all gone off-patent?

No, no... now they are pushing the anti-psychotics, AS anti-depressants. What a wonderful world.

Back to ignoring you again.

Good luck, Jessica. I'm tapering off my SSRI now for the same reason. I'm going about three times slower and much more gradually than my doctor recommended and feel like shit only about a third of the time.

captain caveman: Does postpartum depression interfere with lactation, or does it affect breastfeeding in other ways? I'm genuinely interested and not trying to be argumentative (yet!).

"Why are pills being pushed, but talk therapy is not?"

That is the question!
They say that talk therapy is too expensive and it might take years, decades to work or it might not work.
"Neurosis" is not used in any diagnosis. People are now "bipolar" which mean they need a psychiatrist.
I don't know hat is happening in US because all I see are psychologists and I hardly hear the word "psychoanalyst" or even "shrink" that it seems to me was talk therapy.
Few psychoanalysts have the guts to go against the ride and I believe that in Brazil we have at least three great psychoanalysts that have their article published... once a year.
CBT is used for many conditions that it cannot help.
I don't understand how they did it but psychiatry became the only branch to treat any mental or emotional condition.
This is sad.

I'm still waiting for the words of the psychiatrists that used to come to FS. Why are you hidden lately?
I'm sure you are reading it and still... you all remain SILENT!
It's getting harder to claim: "These drugs help millions of people."
"My patients don't have these problems."
"I never heard about this side effect."
"It is all in your head."
"No! These medicines are not addictive."
"Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance of the serotonin level in the brain."
"Skip a dose and you will have an erection."

I'm forgetting many others.

Kevin,
I saw this video in 2006 and it is at my youtube account.
It is at one of those meetings, I'm sure that there were people from the labs there, hehe, and they are asked if they have ever healed a patient and other questions.
It is amazing the smiles at their faces.

I will see it again.

Thalidomide used to be prescribed for morning sickness. Of course they are admitting the "bare minimum" in terms of what SSRI's do during pregnancy.The dangers to babies and pregnant moms will ultimately be fully disclosed/leaked. I hope parents unite and sue every single SSRI company into an alternate universe.

AmazonMom- Your answer is awesome in how true it is, but also scary in how true it is: "Hi, we know you have this problem - we have a cure for you: it doesn't work, and will give you side effects, but the truth is we are unable to provide the cure that has an evidence base, so we are providing a shot-in-the-dark."

That does not make sense to me. The problem is in how health care is arranged and financed. That is it. It is NOT an issue of whether one type of treatment or another works.

But the doctors MISLEAD everyone. They don't say: talk therapy is the best, but I don't hav a referral for you." No - what happens is what people are first-hand reporting HERE: the docs push pills on you.

This is at least disingenuous from the docs.

If physicians in general, and specifically ob/gyn, worked to get the therapist-access piece of the puzzle in place, then things would change.

You could easily borrow money to get trained as a counselor, since counselor grads would be assured of jobs to satisfy this need, and could pay back these loans with income.

Exactly as is happening with the nurse's shortage right now. Physicians have not come up with an 'easy answer' pill to replace a nurse, but they have come up with an 'easy answer' pill to replace a counselor - as long as the doc ignores the threat of birth defects, along with ignoring patient side effect complaints, etc.