Dr Dawn Kingston

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Calgary, AB
Dr Dawn Kingston

https://www.drdawnmentalhealth4women.com/research-studies I’m Dr. Dawn Kingston and I’m on a mission to help women live their best lives. I want to change this.

Dr. Dawn Kingston & The HOPE Team
Helping Women Overcome Mental Heathcare Barriers
🌼HOPE: Free selfguided therapy
📖Book: Your Brain on Pregnancy
🐑Farm in off hrs
⬇️Join a research study! My work centers on helping pregnant women take care of their mental and emotional well-being. Healthy families depend upon healthy mothers, and my goal is to help mothers be at their very best. I have two grown so

ns of my own, and I know firsthand that I can only support them well when I am healthy myself. As an associate professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, and holder of the Lois Hole Hospital for Women Cross-Provincial Chair in Perinatal Mental Health, I’m able to help pregnant women build strong emotional health and become the parent they want to be. I’ve been doing research on prenatal mental health for the past 10 years. I became seriously interested in women’s mental health during pregnancy when I was a nurse caring for sick infants in a neonatal intensive care unit. I realized that the medical field was focused on physical pregnancy problems, but some new research was linking prenatal stress, anxiety and depression to preterm birth and other health problems in children whose mothers suffered with prenatal anxiety or depression. A decade later, we now know that mental health problems are among the most common health problems in pregnancy. Unfortunately, help for emotional and mental health during pregnancy is often unavailable when and where women need it and they end up feeling alone and desperate. My goal is to share information and answers to questions that I constantly hear from women, their families and their prenatal care providers and provide bottom line, practical solutions that you can use to support your emotional health. Everything I offer will be based on our best evidence for how to prevent and treat emotional health problems in pregnancy. One last thing. The material I provide is meant to help you find the help you need to restore or maintain you mental and emotional health. As with all online health information, you should share it with your own provider before beginning any course of treatment. Warmly,
Dr. K

08/04/2026

You might be surprised to learn that our research shows as many as 30% to 40% of pregnant women experience “sub-clinical” symptoms of anxiety and depression. In other words, their symptoms aren’t quite intense enough to be diagnosed, but they still have low-level signs that hover just beneath the surface – enough to to impact how they feel and function.

You might even notice these “symptoms” in yourself. Maybe you’re feeling less joy, tired, low on energy, or lacking motivation. Or perhaps you could be more stressed than usual, experiencing challenges in communication within your relationships. While these might not be outright signs of anxiety or depression, they can play a role in affecting wellbeing.

Are you pregnant and seeking mental health support? Check out the book Your Brain on Pregnancy for research-backed support.

07/09/2026

Pregnancy and postpartum emotions are about so much more than hormones. When women understand that things like stress, relationship conflict, lack of support, and mental health history can all play a role, it can feel a little less scary and a lot more manageable. There’s comfort in knowing these feelings aren’t random — and that with the right support, women can have more understanding, agency, and care around their emotional well-being. 💛

What’s one thing that helped you feel more supported or grounded during pregnancy or postpartum?

07/02/2026

Here at the HOPE team we could hardly believe that it’s been two years since the preorder for ‘Your Brain on Pregnancy.’ We could not have predicted how many lives it has touched and are thankful to all of you who have borrowed, purchased, recommended, chose to carry it in your indie bookstore, gifted, and shared the book, whether it be for yourself, a loved one , a client or your local library. We see you and are grateful. Thank you all! 💙 - Dawn and the HOPE team

06/25/2026

Well this is the final video to the EEG video series! We would love for you to join us in this study. Together we can make a difference in women’s brain and mental health research.

Joining is very simple! All you need to do is ✉️ us at [email protected] to share your interest. You will then be sent a link to a survey with clearly described consent and can make sure your EEG appointment is scheduled in.

⭐️ Visit the 🔗 to learn more about the EEG study and do message if you have questions!⭐️

Many thanks to our sponsors: Alberta Health Services, Women & Children’s Health Research Institute, Calgary Health Foundation, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Covenant Health and the University of Calgary.

This study has received approval from the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary REB54-0104.

06/11/2026

We are seeing some indication that perinatal depression is more common than 25 years ago and I think that’s a big red flag for how we propose to go forward in terms of our system and what our system can offer.

We see a dose response effect. In other words the higher the symptom, or the more severe the symptom, the greater the impact on the baby. However, recent research is identifying women who struggle with subclinical and low levels of distress with certain risk factors for their baby.

This is compelling evidence to not just support mothers with severe symptoms, but also to mothers with sub-clinical symptoms.

Find out more by taking a look back on the talk: ‘Between Us: An Interactive Talk on Maternal Mental Health’ hosted by Lois Hole Hospital for Women (link in bio).

06/09/2026

In the past few videos in this series, we talked about what an EEG is and why an EEG study focused on women’s brains is needed. But how will a this study help women’s mental health?

🧠 In a nutshell, this is a step forward in women’s brain health research in Canada. There has never been a study on women’s brains in Canada to the extent of this study.

The goal is to get an idea of certain patterns. From there we can understand the best treatments to match to the type of brain. And the overall hope is to find the best kind of treatments for various types of women’s brains, similar to finding the best type of treatment to a cardiac or heart test once we know what issue is at stake.

Interested in the study?

💗By participating, you will be helping pave the way for future non-invasive therapies that could support women’s mental health and well-being.

Many thanks to our sponsors: Alberta Health Services, Women & Children’s Health Research Institute, Calgary Health Foundation, Lois Hole Hospital for Women, Covenant Health and the University of Calgary.

This study has received approval from the Conjoint Health Research Ethics Board at the University of Calgary REB54-0104.

06/04/2026

Did you know in Alberta alone, 22% of moms report symptoms of postpartum depression and anxiety? This is just the number of moms that have reported it, that we know of. In our research, we have found that symptoms of ppd can be reduced in severity and time by treating early signs in pregnancy.

Interested in learning more? Take a look back on this talk hosted by the Lois Hole Women’s Society and let us know what you think!

(SHARE LINK IN BIO) https://www.drdawnmentalhealth4women.com/watch/v/between-us

05/28/2026

Mental Health Awareness month may be wrapping up but let’s keep it going. Thinking of all those who are in need of support. Sometimes holding space is all that’s needed. 💙

Address

Calgary, AB

Website

http://www.hopementalhealth4women.com/, https://www.drdawnmentalhealth4women.com/

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