Emily Effect News Today

An estimated 700 to 900 women in the U.S. died from pregnancy-related causes in 2016. We have identified 120 of them so far.

Few stages of life are more associated with joy than pregnancy and childbirth. But for many women, feelings of anxiety, fear and depression counter—and even overwhelm—that joy. And for one Utah woman, a complicated mood disorder born of postpartum anxiety took her life—and her ability to raise the beautiful children shed birthed. Emily Cook Dyches, a devoted wife and mother of five, delivered her last baby—a sweet, blue-eyed boy—in 2015. Soon after going home, Dyches was diagnosed wit...

Utah Shining a Spotlight on Postpartum Mental Health With three children at home already, Lisa Condie Barlow headed to the hospital in 2008 to give birth to her twin boys. But she says this time around, things were different. The Utah mom suffered from postpartum depression and OCD following the birth of her twins. "I felt so inadequate, embarrassed, and ungrateful", she said. "How could I be struggling, when so many of my friends and family were struggling with infertility?" She hid her pain f...