is rare for any intervention, particularly for standard care of interventions for depression (e.g., pharmacological or psychotherapeutic approaches) when treatment is discontinued (Kinser, Elswick, & Kornstein, 2014).
As interest in this complementary practice of yoga as an intervention has grown, research efforts have evolved to address the physical and emotional health implications for women in the postpartum period. Buttner, Brock, O’Hara, and Stuart (2015) conducted one of the first RCTs specifically evaluating the impact of yoga on PPD. They found that women in the experimental yoga group improved in measures of depression, anxiety, well-being, and health-related quality of life scores at a significantly faster rate than the control (Buttner, Brock, O’Hara, & Stuart, 2015).
The benefits of physical activity for both physical and mental health have been extensively explored in the research to the current date. Presently, there exists strong advocacy from the U.S. Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention promoting the importance and the value of regular, moderate-intensity physical activity. A Cochrane review completed by Cooney and colleagues (2013) concluded that in the treatment of depressed adults, there were no differences between the implementation of exercise, psychological therapy, and/or pharmacological intervention with antidepressants. Thus, physical activity is a vital intervention to consider for the treatment and prevention of postpartum depression as it transcends many of the known barriers associated with traditional intervention methods (e.g., stigma, cost, side effects) and may be easily accessed across multiple domains (Lewis et al., 2014).
Qualitative studies tell us that women who take up physical activity in the postpartum period feel empowered by their use of physical activity in becoming change-agents of their self-care, growth, and self-reflection (Lloyd, O’Brien, & Riot, 2016). While studies that have focused on the specific treatment of women with PPD, as reported in Lewis and Kennedy’s (2011) systematic review and meta-analysis, have shown overall mixed results with the use of physical activity to treat depression, there may be greater efficacy for the use of such intervention in a preventative capacity. A systematic review and meta-analysis of twenty-one studies, representing 93,676 women, indicated a significant reduction in postpartum depression scores when physical activity was engaged upon during pregnancy (Nakamura et al., 2019).
Nutrition & Diet
Much has been written in the literature on the topic of consuming a healthy diet for the promotion of physical and mental wellbeing. Following a healthy or high-quality diet has been shown to correlate with improved mental health, but to what extent and in what causation of mechanisms has been challenging for researchers to underline (Molendijk et al., 2018). In a systematic review and meta-analysis of diet quality and depression risk, Molendijk and colleagues (2018) sought to better understand the associations of diet and depression. The International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research (ISNPR), has stated that “diet and nutrition are central determinants of mental health” and that “nutrition is a crucial factor in the high incidence and prevalence of mental disorders” (Sarris et al., 2015a, p. 271; as quoted by Molendijk et al., 2018, p. 347). Empirical evaluation of these claims was the primary objective of Molendijk and colleagues (2018) research, to which they concluded that such claims are supported in their findings of “a high-quality healthy diet – regardless whether it was a healthy/prudent, Mediterranean, pro-vegetarian, or Tuscan diet – was associated with a lower incidence of depressive symptoms” (p. 350).
McCloskey and Reno (2018) found within their systematic review that dietary supplements such as iron, omega-3 fatty acids, and saffron were all statistically significant in treatment if depression in postpartum women. While Ngyuen (2017) references two studies from Taiwan which focused on h