Canadian Refugee Women Are at Increased Risk of Postpartum Depression: How Can We Help?

Refugee women in Canada are at increased risk of postpartum depression (PPD) compared with Canadian-born women. Physicians specializing in women's health are in a unique position to intervene with refugee women experiencing PPD. Although there are common contributors to the development of PPD in both Canadian-born and refugee women, refugee women face a number of additional barriers to treatment. These can include factors unique to the refugee experience (e.g., family separation, uncertainty regarding legal status, social mores of the new country) as well as social determinants of health (e.g., poverty, language barriers, barriers to accessing health care). Some authors have argued that all recent immigrant women who are pregnant should be considered at risk for developing PPD and have stressed the importance of early intervention with this group. This commentary argues that effective strategies to address the needs of women refugees who are pregnant focus on the following areas: early identification of women at risk, advocacy efforts, and mitigation of broader relevant social factors (e.g., food insecurity, poverty, lack of social supports). In addition to these strategies, more research is needed to identify how factors interact to increase the risk of PDD in women refugees and to identify factors that protect against the development of PPD in this group.