Application
All maternal child health nurses are in a position where they may encounter the traumatized adolescent post-birth, if not at the bedside postpartum, in the pediatric setting for well-baby, routine, or emergency visits. Recognition that an adolescent mother may be a victim of abuse or symptomatic of PBT and/or postpartum depression is an important part of a comprehensive assessment that extends past the hospital stay as symptoms can be delayed. Awareness that symptoms of depression may overlap with symptoms of PBT encourages the nurse to look beyond signs commonly characteristic of depression