Perinatal and Postpartum Distress Increases Risk for Developmental Delays

Children born to mothers who have persistent anxiety from late pregnancy to three years postpartum have an increased risk of delays in communication and personal-social development, according to astudy in theJournal of Affective Disorders. The findings suggest the need for increased efforts to identify mothers with perinatal and postpartum distress in an effort to mitigate the associated developmental delays.Muhammad Kashif Mughal, M.B.B.S., Ph.D., of the University of Calgary and colleagues evaluated data from the three-year follow-up to the All Our Families (AOF) study, an ongoing study of mothers and children in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The AOF study, begun in 2008 as the All Our Babies study, includes self-reported assessments of mothers ’ distress at multiple time points ranging from before the 25th week of gestation up to three years postpartum. Also included are parent-reported tools to measure child development at age 3 across five domains: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social. For the c urrent study, the researchers analyzed data from 1,983 mother-child pairs.Overall, 4.7% to 6.4% of the mothers reported depressive symptoms at four time-points:<25 weeks gestation, 34 to 36 weeks gestation, 4 months postpartum, and one year postpartum. Also, 13.8% to 18.5% of mothers reported anxiety symptoms at six time points:<25 weeks gestation, 34-36 weeks gestation, 4 months postpartum, one year postpartum, two years postpartum, an...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research