Study: Babies of depressed mothers exhibit stronger signs of stress

The researchers recruited a total of 50 mothers and their babies: 20 mothers exhibiting with depression or anxiety disorders around the time of birth, and 30 healthy controls. Each mother-baby couple underwent the Still Face Paradigm.

Mothers were asked to play with their babies for 2 minutes, then to cut off all interaction while maintaining eye contact. After 2 more minutes mothers then resumed playful interaction. Throughout the test, researchers measured the heart rates of both mother and baby.

"We found that if a mother was anxious or depressed, their baby had a more sensitive physiological response to stress during the test than did the babies of healthy mothers. This was a statistically significant increase of an average of 8 beats per minute during the non-interactive phase. This is a preliminary finding, so we need to repeat it with a larger sample to make sure that the results are consistent. This is our next step", said Fabio Blanco-Dormond.

"This work means that it is important to diagnose and treat depressive and anxiety disorders in new mothers because it has an immediate impact on the stress system of the baby," said Professor Veerle Bergink, Director of Women's Mental Health Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York as a comment on the research.

"Prior studies showed not only short term but also long term adverse effects of postpartum mood disorders on the children. Most postpartum mood disorders start during, or even before pregnancy, and early diagnosis is therefore important," Bergink added.

Source: zeenews

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