Growing concern: Why it's critical to speak up if pregnancy brings you down

As a specialist perinatal mental health model of care is rolled out nationally, a study shows Ireland has a high 16% rate of depression during pregnancy. Helen O’Callaghan reports.

YOUR body’s in a state of flux – hormones all over the place, morning sickness, exhaustion, weight gain. Yet, despite the momentous physical shift, you never expected pregnancy would bring emotional and mental turbulence. You thought — and so did everybody around you — that you’d be consistently up, on top of the world, or at the very least on a fairly even emotional keel, calm and serene as you waited for baby.