Doctors have known about these effects on a mother for many years. But in the past few years they have discovered something else.Doctors have confirmed that postpartum depression can affect new fathers too.And a father suffering from postpartum depression can affect his children's future.In August 2006, two medical schools released a research study.The researchers studied more than five thousand families. Each family included a nine month old baby.The researchers asked the new mothers and fathers questions about depression.Fourteen percent of new mothers in the study showed signs of depression. The researchers expected this to be the case.But the researchers were surprised that ten percent of the fathers also showed strong signs of depression.This is more than twice the normal rate of depression in men of the general population.
