PPD Legislation: Seconding the congratulations offered by Katherine at Postpartum Progress to Rep. Bobby Rush, who, after six years of campaigning, has finally seen his Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Research and Care Act move out of the Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection (pause for breath), where it received unanimous support.

Next step: The House floor for a vote.

The proposed law would require the National Institutes of Health to put more resources into researching postpartum depression and psychosis, as well as providing more support for women affected by the disorders. According to the American Psychiatric Association, postpartum depression affects around one in ten new mothers; postpartum mood disorders with psychotic features affect between one in 500 to 1000 new moms.

You can read more about Melanie Blocker-Stokes here.

More News on Depression: A new study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry finds that approximately one in seven new mothers is identified as having depression either before, during, or after pregnancy. “The fact that [depression] is similar between those 3 time points reinforces the fact that depression is something that happens relatively commonly in reproduction-aged women and can be exacerbated during pregnancy,” said Dr. [Evelyn P.] Whitlock.

Vaccine Research:  A University of Rochester study finds that the new combination vaccines for infants that get the recommended vaccines into a two-month-old in three shots are as safe and effective as the roster that requires five pokes. The study followed 575 healthy babies at 22 sites nationwide. While there was more swelling and soreness at the injection site with the combination vaccine, in none of the babies did side effects require an extra doctor visit. “Vaccine opponents may liken the process of the body processing simultaneous vaccines to a computer running too many applications; the machine grows slow, and the programs, one by one, begin to terminate,” [Dr. Michael] Pichichero said. “But those fears are unfounded; we have found no evidence that a child’s body is at any point approaching a maximum threshold as far as learning to produce immune responses.”