Health visitor help could stop PND

Sheffield University scientists discovered that mums suffering from the baby blues who were given therapy 6-8 weeks after giving birth, were 40 per cent less likely to go on to develop postnatal depression than those not treated.

'Training health visitors to assess women, identify symptoms of postnatal depression and deliver psychologically informed sessions was clinically effective,' said the report.

The baby blues affects around 70 per cent of women with about 13 per cent going on to develop postnatal depression.