Babies whose mothers have maternal depression have a higher risk of growing more slowly than normal during their first two years of life, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, reported in the journal Pediatrics.
The authors explained that prior studies had demonstrated that maternal depression can lead to poor overall development, including slower physical growth during the first 24 months of a child’s life.
However, not much is known what effects decreased growth during a child’s first two years and poorer developmental outcomes might have later on in life.
Pamela J. Surkan, ScD., and team gathered and studied data from a nationally representative population sample – the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort. Their aim was to find out whether depressive symptoms 9 months after giving birth may have a negative impact on children’s growth after they reach the age of 3 years.
They found that children whose mothers had mild, moderate or severe depressive symptoms were from 40% and 48% more likely to be below the tenth percentile in height at the ages of 4 and 5 years respectively.
They found no link between lower bodyweight in that age group and depression among mothers when the kids were babies.
A 2005 study, carried out by researchers from the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School of Business and Economics, found that pregnant mothers with depression were more likely to give birth to low-weight babies.
How a child’s growth may be negatively affected is not fully understood. The researchers believe it may be due to poor feeding practices, perhaps the mother breastfeeds for less time, has attachment issues with the baby, or the child experiences higher levels of stress.
The authors concluded:
“Maternal depressive symptoms during infancy may affect physical growth in early childhood. Prevention, early detection, and treatment of maternal depressive symptoms during the first year postpartum may prevent childhood height-for-age ≤10th percentile among preschool- and school-aged children.”
A 2009 study found a link between maternal depression and sleep disturbance in babies.
The Canadian Paediatric Society said in 2005 that the consequences of post natal depression do not only cause problems for infants, they may even affected older children, including school age kids. The Society added that “Children of depressed mothers are at risk for developmental and behavioral problems and may be predisposed for developing depressive disorders themselves.”
Written by Christian Nordqvist