Depression During Pregnancy can impact the Newborn

Researchers have found that depression during pregnancy can ultimately lead to behavioral and biological changes in the unborn child. And to promote in him a greater risk of suffering from this disease in adulthood.

It is known that several factors can influence the course of a pregnancy, such as alcohol, diet, exposure to harmful substances, medication or stress. Researchers at London's King's College say there is another factor, too little taken into account: depression.
Their study asserts that this condition has a physiological impact on the mother, and can affect the baby in utero, and even cause behavioral problems when it grows. This study compared long-term behavior of babies born to mothers diagnosed with depression to those of healthy mothers.

Scientists recruited 25-week pregnant women (49 women with major depressive disorder and 57 healthy women) and studied them and their babies up to one year after birth. Specifically, they took the blood of each of these women to measure inflammation and assess whether depression put their body under pressure as can an infection. In addition, saliva samples were taken at the 32nd week of pregnancy and cortisol levels (the stress hormone) were measured. Blood test results showed that pregnant women with depression had increased inflammation.

These children are more sensitive to stress

In addition, the results of saliva samples indicated that saliva samples had higher levels of cortisol at the time of sampling in the morning and evening. These women also gave birth on average eight days earlier than the control group at 39.2 weeks rather than 40.4 weeks. Six days after the birth of the children, the researchers evaluated their abilities, via a neonatal behavioral evaluation scale, with regard to their vigilance and their immediate responses to stimuli such as noise and light. It turns out that newborns of mothers with depression during pregnancy reported lower performance than the control group.

In addition, since each baby is vaccinated at two months and twelve months of age, researchers took the opportunity to examine the response of their body to the stress of vaccination and to measure their cortisol levels in their saliva. The scientists found that infants with depressed mothers had a higher cortisol level after one year of age, indicating that they were more responsive to stress. This discovery is important, as it is the first study to identify the link between depression-induced inflammation in pregnant women and behavioral and biological changes in their babies.

"We knew that children born to depressed mothers would be at greater risk of depression in adulthood. This identifies an important biological mechanism that could explain this effect. "Explain the researchers. These conclusions also show, once again, the importance of the environment in utero for the unborn child. "Interestingly, the behavioral and biological changes in the baby are not due to postnatal depression but only to depression during pregnancy. They stress. In their conclusions, they recommend that women concerned do not hesitate to seek medical help because depression can be treated.