Does Depression During Pregnancy Affect Your Baby?

It has long been known that maternal depression may affect infant development. Studies have shown that children of depressed parents are at an increased risk of developing depression themselves. It has also been determined that the amygdala’s microstructure — how it is wired — was seen as abnormal in two-week old infants born to depressed mothers. Abnormal amygdala function is a feature of mood and anxiety disorders, so this is a cause for concern. A July 2018 study published in ScienceDirect takes this one step further and finds that a mother’s depression during pregnancy was connected to several adverse outcomes for her baby. The study, known as The Psychiatry Research and Motherhood-Depression (PRAM-D) study, was led by Sarah Osborne MBBS, PhD, of King’s College London. Dr. Osborne and her colleagues found that mothers who had major depression during their pregnancy also had a shorter length of gestation by an average of 8 days compared with mothers who did not have depression. In addition, those who were diagnosed with major depressive disorder during pregnancy had several raised inflammatory and cortisol biomarkers in their third trimester. Mothers without depression did not have these raised markers. In regards to the babies, those exposed to their mother’s depression in utero had adverse effects on neurobehavioral functioning as early as 6 days postnatal. This was marked by a significant difference in suboptimal functioning in several Neonatal Behav...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Depression Parenting Pregnancy Women's Issues Source Type: blogs