27-year-old 'Lisa' doesn't want to use her real name, but she does want to talk about the depression that's hit her hard.

"I was even hospitalized for having suicidal thoughts and attempting it prior, so it was pretty bad," Lisa recalls.

Lisa says medication helped her get away from the bad thoughts.

"It didn't make me happy but it made me hopeful that I would be happy," she says.

When Lisa realized she was pregnant, she says she felt too guilty taking drugs... worried they would harm the baby, but knowing that stopping her meds was risky.

Deborah Kim is a psychiatrist. She explains, "Depression during pregnancy has lots of bad outcomes associated with it."

Dr. Kim says besides the risk of suicide, depression during pregnancy can cause early delivery, and preeclampsia--a form of dangerously high blood pressure.

Now through a breakthrough pilot study, Dr. Kim is treating depressed moms-to-be with TMS, or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. It's an FDA approved treatment that uses the electromagnetic pulses of a powerful magnet to target the part of the brain involved in depression.

"It allows the brain cells to communicate better with each other, and so if you can get those circuits to communicate, those neurons to communicate better with each other... The depression actually will improve," Dr. Kim says.

So far, Dr. Kim says all 10 women in the study have seen improvement. Seven say they're at least 50% better, three no longer feel depressed. But the study is still on-going and final results won't be known for at least 4 years.

"All the babies were born healthy there were no complications from the treatment," Dr. Kim recalls.

Since Lisa is part of the study she doesn't know if she is getting the real deal or a placebo, but she says she feels the veil of depression lifting, and suspects she is getting the magnetic therapy. "I feel hopeful, I get out of bed fine. I'm not waking up in the middle of the night depressed... It's definitely a big change."

TMS has only been around for about 5 years so any long term effects are unknown.