I'm looking forward to heading off to Pittsburgh Wednesday to spend time at the annual Postpartum Support International Conference with advocates and experts, all of whom focus their efforts on helping women with postpartum depression and related illnesses.

So it's perfect timing that today the American Academy of Pediatrics released a new clinical report supporting PPD screening that will be published in the November issue of Pediatrics. In it, they encourage all pediatric practices to screen mothers for postpartum depression, because it "… can have serious adverse effects on the mother and child relationship, resulting in an enviroment that can disrupt the infant's development."

That's right. All pediatric practices should screen for PPD. Yay! Way to go AAP!

They state that postpartum depression screening is recommended by Bright Futures and the AAP Mental Health Task Force, and is a best practice in caring for infants and their families.

Note: It's so cool that today's post (look down) is from a pediatrician. Good timing or what?!?!