Riddhi Laijawala

A fun fact about me (and often my go-to ice breaker): Great White Sharks are my favourite animals. Not cats, not dogs, nothing fuzzy or cuddly or cute. And this has been the case since I was 6 or 7 years old. Weird, isn’t it? I’ve made it a habit of weaving my personal interests and hobbies into my Inspire the Mind articles, beyond the work I do as a Trial Manager in Perinatal Psychiatric Research. I’ve previously written about baking sourdough bread, the importance of children’s movies, a

In November 2022, I took my first step into science as a full-time researcher. I had no idea then that the very first project I worked on would take nearly four years to reach publication. In this article, I will talk about what truly works to treat depression in pregnancy, and why I do this research. Depression in pregnancy, which is known as antenatal depression (AD), affects nearly 30% of pregnant women around the world. What makes AD so important to treat is the negative impacts it has on

I vividly remember the 22nd of May 2017. I was 17 years old, on vacation in Italy, and getting ready for the evening. My dad read out breaking news of a suicide bombing at Manchester Arena, after an Ariana Grande concert. Every concert since, as an adult who lives with anxiety, I get incredibly uncomfortable leaving concert venues due to this fear. But this piece isn’t about me. It’s about Ariana Grande. On top of the deadly terrorist attack, she experienced the death of an ex-partner and