Predicting Risk of Postpartum Depression

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1:27Message and data rates may apply. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Copyright 2026. JPMorgan Chase and Company. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. This is Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Masser and Tim Stenevek on Bloomberg Radio. It is time now for the Businessweek Women's Health segment. It's where we focus on key issues and developing technologies impacting the present and future of women's health around the world. We do welcome Dr. Lauren Osborne. She's vice chair of clinical research department of OBGYN at Weill Cornell Medicine. She joins us from London. Dr. Osborne is a reproductive psychiatrist specializing in mental health during and after pregnancy.

2:12Dr. Osborne, so nice to have you here with Tim and me on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily. First up, I just want to do the macro, if I may, and your thoughts about global birth rates here in the U.S. What have you seen in your practice about what's going on and what you see as kind of some of the main reasons? Is it complications in getting pregnant? Is it older age? What do you see from your vantage point?

2:34Dr. Lauren Osborne:You know, I think it's a variety of things that we're dealing with. Part of it is young people feeling less certain about the world and less certain about their financial futures and being more reluctant to have children. Part of it is being in a place where in much of the world we do have choice about whether or not to have children. I think a lot of it is financial though, unfortunately. Well, yeah, I mean, we can open up a whole discussion about like what what different governments could be doing or or should be doing in your view to help encourage this. But but I feel like at least in the United States, the the idea of a dad or a mom being able to spend an extended period of time with a newborn is still a luxury.

3:20And I wonder to what extent that is something that holds people back.

3:26Dr. Lauren Osborne:I think that's a huge factor, especially here in the U.S. You know, we are one of the very few industrialized countries that doesn't have a standard set of parental leave. It's still, you still have to ask it as a favor in a lot of places. And even though we do have FMLA and people are obligated to give that leave, it's only certain companies. It's not necessarily paid leave. And that makes a huge difference in people feeling whether or not they can afford it, both in terms of finances, but also in terms of their ability to connect with their child and their emotional bonding with the child. Okay.

4:01Again, here's another thing that people aren't going to get hate mail. But if guys were having babies, do you think this would be different and that we would have figured this out?

4:09Dr. Lauren Osborne:Oh, you've asked a great question. I'm sorry to say I do think it would be different if guys were having babies. I think a lot of the place we're in has to do with just a lot of preconceived ideas about what motherhood is and the self-sacrifice that mothers have to make and the fact that half the population isn't going through that experience. So let's go to that. Having had a child and just loving actually the whole process and being very lucky, because I know it's not always so easy. And I know it can be difficult just getting pregnant. It can be difficult through the process. It can also be difficult afterwards.

4:50We know women get postpartum depression. Give me an idea of how common that is.

4:57Dr. Lauren Osborne:so it's surprisingly common it's about 15 to 20 percent of the population in countries like the u.s and other industrialized countries so when you think about it it's much more common than a lot of other uh relatively common disorders and yet it's very little talked about studied or recognized why or is it just because we're women a part of it part of it is because we're women and i think we don't prioritize women's health. You know, it was only in 2014 that the National Institutes of Health required science that is doing research in animals to use female animals in addition to male animals. So we're really far behind in terms of the research we have in women's health.

5:42Dr. Lauren Osborne:We're far behind in terms of the advocacy that we need to get to the answers of why people develop postpartum depression and what kind of supports we need. One of the statistics that I find so shocking is that there's that 15 to 20 % rate of postpartum depression, but the rate of women that we actually diagnose and treat is much, much lower than that, with only about 3 % of women with postpartum depression are actually treated to remission, so treated until they get better. How does that treatment typically work, doctor? Sure. So there's a variety of things that we can use. Fortunately, we have a lot of good and evidence-based treatments.

6:19Dr. Lauren Osborne:We just don't always put them in place where we need to. So there are a couple of different types of psychotherapy that are evidence-based for depression, in particular, cognitive behavioral therapy and interpersonal therapy. We also know that traditional antidepressants are efficacious in postpartum depression. And then we also have some relatively new drugs that are based on hormonal mechanisms that also have some good evidence for treatment in postpartum depression. So we have the treatments. We're just not getting the moms to the place where they can access them. And I guess in an ideal world, right, it would be great if you could predict if someone is going to likely have it.

6:54Is there something to it? And my understanding is that you're researching biological markers that could help predict postpartum depression. What are folks looking for? And I'm just wondering how this could maybe be a game changer for a lot of women.

7:08Dr. Lauren Osborne:Yeah, I do think it is a game changer, because as I said, we have good treatments, we just don't get women to the place where they need to get them. And part of that is that we're not sure who's at risk. Postpartum depression is something that can be caused by many different factors, both psychosocial factors and biological factors. But if we had a blood test or something that could really predict who's at risk, we'd be able to target the resources we have toward those moms who need them the most. Yeah, look, I think this is something too, increasingly that partners are understanding. And in a world where dads, the non-birthing partners have an understanding of this, they can increasingly be a supporter or play a role of support.

7:55How does that partnership factor in, in your work and in recovery?

8:01Dr. Lauren Osborne:You know, I think that's a huge factor. One of the things that we know is a huge contributor to postpartum depression is sleep deprivation, which is common with a newborn. But I increasingly am seeing partners, non-birthing partners, who are really willing to invest that time to get up in the middle of the night and help the baby. And that can be such a support and really can be a prevention of postpartum depression for the mom. We also, unfortunately, can see postpartum depression in the non-birthing partner. So it's really a situation where the two partners have to support each other. He gets us back to the idea, Carol, of having that flexibility and being lucky enough to have a job where you can actually, you know, be away from work to spend that time at home.

8:41I just got to do a shout out for my husband because he, on that and getting sleep, would do a nighttime feeding at midnight so that I could at least kind of get four or five hours of straight sleep. And that was part of our routine. And he still cooks dinner for you every night, too. He does cook dinner. Okay. He's a good man. I'm crazy. He's a good man. Dr. Osborne, I hope we can continue this conversation. Let us know how your research is going. Dr. Lauren Osborne, she's vice chair of clinical research, Department of OBGYN at Weill Cornell Medicine from Oxford.

9:17They told us to expect change. They warned us about the transition. But honestly, they forgot the best part. This is the chapter where we finally focus on us. LifeMD delivers expert menopause and midlife care right from your home. From hormone health to holistic wellness, LifeMD helps you feel your best for the best years of your life. LifeMD, it's just getting good. Visit LifeMD.com slash goodlife. Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Smart Talks with IBM. I recently sat down with IBM's chairman and CEO, Arvind Krishna, and I asked him, how can companies use AI to its fullest potential to create smarter business?

10:04My one advice to them, pick areas you can scale. Don't pick the shiny little toys on the side. For example? If anybody has more than 10 % of what they had for customer service 10 years ago, they're already five years behind. If anybody is not using AI to make their developers who write software 30 % more productive today, with the goal of being 70 % more productive. Yeah. Wow. So we are not asking our clients to be the first experiment on it. We say, you can leverage what we did. We are happy to bring out all our learnings, including what needs to change in the process, because the biggest change is not technology.

10:50It's getting people to accept that there's a different way to do things. To listen to the full conversation, visit ibm.com slash smarttalks.

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