the love for engineering solutions initially brought this team together

On February 27, 2016, fellow friends and bioengineering undergraduates, Niranjanaa Jeeva and Ella Stimson, decided to spend their spare weekend in their freshman year at UC San Diego by going to the local health based hackathon, UC HealthHack, organized by UCSD's Engineering World Health. Niranjanaa and Ella had been friends since high school and had worked on many engineering design based projects together at their high school's engineering academy. The thrill of product design prompted them to continue this into college and brought them there that day to the hackathon.

Standing in line for registration, they herded behind the last person - a strange and hipster sophomore they only knew briefly from their bioengineering program at UC San Diego. This was Julie Yip, bioengineer and young leader within the school's organizations. With much excitement and energy arising, Niranjanaa and Ella were ready to engineer but also be filled with puzzles, mistakes, and humility at this hackathon - a great motivation to learn more and persue their love as future engineers! This team of two deliberated with great eyebrow movement and eye contact to ask Julie to join their engineering clan for this event; but hesitant Julie gave them a mannerly rejection...but was coaxed into joining anyway! Now as a crowd of three ladies they were ready to engineer a solution and have fun.

When the prompt for the hackathon was given to be to find solutions to mental health, the group went down into their deliberation and research. A shy mention was given within the three: "Hmm...what's postpartum depression?" After a few seconds of thought something clicked in each mind in unison. A click that stimulated their passion: Julie, for neonatal and women's health; Niranjanaa, for women's health and justice; and Ella, for women's health and learning new topics. With this click, a latch was formed between the three that would connect them together for years to come.

we believe increasing education and raising awareness is critical. postpartum depression is just one of many emotional challenges a mother can experience after giving birth.

baby blues

most common
does not affect functioning

prevalence

60 - 80% of all births

symptoms

sadness, irritability, frustration, fatigue

time of onset

1 - 3 days after birth and up to a max of 14 days

postpartum depression (PPD)

lasts longer than baby blues
has greater impact than ​baby blues

prevalence

10 - 20% of all births

symptoms

frequent crying, anger/irritability, sleep disturbances, anxiety, lack of attachment to child, thoughts of suicide

time of onset

anytime during the first year after birth

postpartum psychosis

very rare, most severe form of condition
potential risk of infanticide

prevalence

1 - 2 in 1,000 births

symptoms

quickly changing moods, racing thoughts, thoughts of harming child, delusional beliefs

time of onset

can be sudden, as early as a few days after birth

postpartum obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD)

prevalence

3 - 5% of all births

symptoms

obsessions, compulsions, hypervigilance, fear of being alone with baby

postpartum anxiety and panic disorders

sometimes experienced alone
sometimes in tandem with depression

prevalence

10% of all births

symptoms

rapid heartbeat, dizziness, nausea, insomnia, moodiness, restlessness, irrational fear, frequent panic attacks, racing thoughts​

postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

mostly caused by trauma of childbirth, especially if past trauma has occurred

prevalence

9% of all births

symptoms

flashbacks or nightmares, irritability, difficulty sleeping, hypervigilance, feeling of detachment

postpartum mania

bipolar mood disorder

prevalence

3% of all births

symptoms

periods of elevated moods and severe depression, rapid speech, continuous high energy, overconfidence, hallucinations, delusions, little need for sleep

time of onset

common within 6 weeks after birth

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