Treatment of Perinatal Mood Disorders

About the Book

In medical school, we were taught First, Do No Harm. While studying in obstetrics, we were basically told, “Do not interfere with the natural process of pregnancy and delivery so that nature could run its course. Let the obstetrician add medication because they know the most.” In the world of defensive medicine, why would you add medication during pregnancy? The malpractice insurance for ob-gyns is astronomical. Women have been delivering babies since the beginning of time, and it’ll all turn out okay. As an intern, I was terrified of killing someone. I would check and recheck my work to make sure that I did not harm someone. So the noninterference of medication use during pregnancy and postpartum made sense to me.

About the Author

Dr. Nan Nelson attended medical school at the University of Texas Health Science at San Antonio. She did her adult psychiatry training as well as her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Case Western Reserve, University Hospitals of Cleveland. She is double board certified in both. She did her perinatal/women’s training with Dr. Miriam Rosenthal at MacDonald Women’s House. She completed an early childhood education and MBA prior to medical school. She lives in Northeast Ohio with her two children, three cats, a dog, and her daughter’s bearded dragon.