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ccording to the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 13 percent of women experience anxiety during pregnancy, with around 12 percent experiencing depression; many are affected by both. Women are more likely to develop depression and anxiety during the first year after childbirth than at any other time in their life.

In my practice here in Hong Kong, I’ve found the most prevalent condition in the perinatal period (that is, during pregnancy and after childbirth) is anxiety, or anxiety and depression – not depression only. Yet, perinatal anxiety in conjunction with depression, or as a separate clinical condition, is little discussed and too rarely recognised.

DR QURATULAIN ZAIDI of Mind N Life looks at the issue of new mothers, mums-to-be and mental health.