According to a recent study led by Maria N. Ness, MPH, approximately 30 percent of American Indian and Alaskan Native mothers face postpartum depression. This is due to a variety of factors, including social stressors and lack of resources such as housing instability and stressful life events. What is commonly known as the “fourth trimester,” mothers undergo several physical and emotional changes that impact their quality of life and daily functioning in the first three months of delivering their baby.
