Postpartum depression is one of the most common and most under-recognised complications of childbirth. Estimates suggest it affects anywhere between 10% and 55% of new mothers, yet most of the time it goes unnamed. Women do not walk into your clinic saying they think they have postpartum depression. They say they feel tired all the time, that they are not sleeping even when the baby does, that they feel like they are not cut out for this. They arrive because their partner or their mother finally persuaded them to come in.
Dr Kim Callaghan is a naturopathic doctor who has been in practice since 2001, working first in a rural setting outside Ottawa before relocating to Toronto, where she focuses on women's and children's health. She holds prescribing rights for hormones and has been certified by the Menopause Society. As a mother herself, and as someone who came to naturopathic medicine through her own experience of ill health, Kim brings both clinical depth and genuine warmth to this topic, which she describes as very close to her heart and her brain.
In this presentation, Kim will walk you through the complete picture of perinatal and postpartum depression with a thoroughness and practicality that will be directly useful in clinical practice. She explains how to tell postpartum blues from postpartum depression, why postpartum psychosis is not as rare as textbooks suggest, and why suicide remains one of the leading causes of death in the perinatal period in developed countries.
She covers what a comprehensive assessment looks like, including physical examination, the right laboratory investigations, and how to use screening tools effectively, including the practical tip of sending questionnaires home with patients who need a quiet moment to reflect honestly.
Kim then moves through the evidence base for conventional and naturopathic treatment in considerable detail, covering iron, vitamin D, B12, folate, omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics, saffron, St John's wort, motherwort, ashwagandha, chamomile and lavender, alongside dietary and lifestyle approaches. She is careful throughout to situate naturopathic care within a collaborative model, and she is clear about when to refer and who to involve. The presentation closes with four detailed case studies from her own practice, each of which brings the theory to life in ways that are both instructive and encouraging.
