(file photo) Doctors say 40 percent of women show no symptoms of postpartum depression until six months after child birth.

Health and Human Services researchers found depression is one of the most frequent problems during and after pregnancy. It also found mothers typically feel too ‘‘embarrassed” or ‘‘guilty” to seek help.

Dr. Marcie Weiner, clinical director for the Postpartum Stress Center in Rosemont, Penn., said many mothers experience the ‘‘baby blues” in the days following childbirth and symptoms typically go away within a week or two.

Weiner said a woman experiencing the ‘‘baby blues” can show signs of sudden mood swings, sadness, fits of crying, sleeplessness, feel short-tempered, agitated, anxious and lonely. If symptoms are not considered severe, then treatment isn’t needed, she said.

Hospital Corpsman Danielle Lerwick, first time mother-to-be and credentialing assistant at the National Naval Medical Center, said she has a good support group amongst co-workers and her husband.

‘‘I am really emotional because of my raging hormones at the moment,” Lerwick said. ‘‘I think I’ll be fine once the baby is here — I might get the ‘baby blues’ from being so overwhelmed in the beginning, but that usually goes away within a couple of weeks.”

Weiner said women who suffer from postpartum depression — as opposed to the baby blues — experience sadness for a longer period of time and those feelings typically keep her from functioning properly. Postpartum depression can happen anytime within the first year after childbirth, she said.

Capt. Frances Stewart, department head of Bethesda’s Behavioral Health Department, said the National Naval Medical Center is working on new ways to treat patients with postpartum depression. She said the National Naval Medical Center treats approximately four or five patients for postpartum depression each month.

Stewart said pregnant women are given a standardized test, called the Edinburgh post natal depression scale, throughout their pregnancy to help diagnose depression as early as possible.

‘‘Forty percent of women [who are diagnosed with postpartum depression] don’t get have any symptoms until six months after child birth,” Weiner said. ‘‘It’s more intense and will not resolve quickly on its own.”

Stewart said new mothers can get discouraged easily and may not realize they need help.

‘‘[Expectant or new moms] don’t realize what the problem is,” Stewart said. ‘‘They are embarrassed and don’t know what to do or where to go [for help].”

Stewart said the recent media attention devoted to this illness increased society’s acceptance of postpartum depression as a disease and has reduced mothers’ fears of seeking help.

‘‘I think [postpartum depression] is more accepted now than 20 years ago,” Stewart said. ‘‘[There are] still some issues with [the way society views] it, but not as bad as it was.”

Health and Human Services’ studies show the illness usually begins in the first six weeks after birth and psychosis, the most severe postpartum condition, occurs in about only one out of every 1,000 births. Women with a bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder are at a higher risk for developing postpartum psychosis.

The study found psychosis symptoms may include delusions, hallucinations, sleep disturbances and obsessive thoughts about the baby — ranging from euphoria to irritability to depression.

‘‘[Postpartum psychosis] is a rapid on-set,” Weiner said. ‘‘It’s not on the same spectrum as postpartum depression.”