Identification of Mothers at Risk for Postpartum Depression by Hospital-Based Perinatal Nurses

In the western world, most women deliver their infants in a hospital setting. The purposes of this article are to provide guidelines and suggest best practices related to hospital-based care for postpartum depression by perinatal nurses; with this information, policies, procedures, and educational programs can be implemented to improve nursing care of new mothers. Hospital-based perinatal nurses need to "launch" new mothers from the hospital into the community so that the new mothers are prepared for self-monitoring for symptoms of depression, and know what steps to take if they do experience depressive symptoms.