According to a study titled “Dietary Folate and Vitamins B12, B6, and B2 Intake and the Risk of Postpartum Depression in Japan: The Osaka Maternal and Child Health Study” (Miyake Y, Sasaki S, et al.), published in the Journal of Affective Disorders (June 29, 2006), B-vitamin intake may help reduce the risk of postpartum depression.
The subjects of the study were 865 Japanese women who completed dietary questionnaires during pregnancy. Of this group, 121 women developed postpartum depression between two and nine months after delivery, defined as a score of 9 or higher on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale.
Women whose diets were high in riboflavin (vitamin B2) were significantly less likely to experience postpartum depression than women with low dietary intake of vitamin B2.
