whether pregnant women who have depression are at a greater risk of giving birth to a child with developmental delays

whether pregnant women who have depression are at a greater risk of giving birth to a child with developmental delays

Pregnancy is the most beautiful experience every woman would like to have during her reproduction life phase. However a healthy baby is every mother’s wish. While depression has been found to be common mental disorder in pregnant women, it has been of big concern on whether it may have adverse effect of child development. This   paper seeks on whether pregnant women who have depression are at a greater risk of giving birth to a child with developmental delays.

Depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), is a mood illness that causes distressing symptoms that affects how you feel, think, and handle every day activities such as sleeping, eating, or working. Depression can be of two major types: major and minor depression. Minor depression is having at least 2 but less 5 symptoms during a 2 week period without any history o f a major depressive episode. A major depression, on the other hand, is experienced when you have depressed moods or loss of pleasure or irritability with 5 or more symptoms that last for 2 years. Depression is caused by a combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. It is also present along with other serious illness such as cancer, and diabetes.

According to WHO, 20% of women experiences depression during their life time globally with United States recording an approximate of 12 million women with clinical depression each year. However, this prevalence is higher in pregnant women. Worldwide, 1 in every 10 pregnant women have been found to experience antenatal depression. There are several factors associated with this high prevalence. They include; rampant hormonal shifts, personal history of experiencing depression, stressful life events such as economic deprivation, previous history of operative delivery, stillbirths, prolonged labour or miscarriages and  gender based violence.

A research by T Deave, a J Heron, b J Evans, c A Emondd  found that there is a strong link between antenatal  depression and  early childhood development delays. in their findings,  children whose mothers had persistent antenatal depression had higher  developmental delays odds  by 50 %.

Antenatal depression affects the infant both physically, mentally and emotionally. According to Early Intervention Foundation 2014, antenatal depression is associated with the following adverse effects to the child; neonatal behavior, conduct disorder, sleep problems, victimization in childhood, and impaired cognitive development.

A report by World Health Organization 2008, showed that infants whose mothers experienced antenatal depression show dysregulations. These dysreglations affects their  behavior and physiological wellbeing. This is as a result of biochemical imbalances they are exposed to while in their mothers womb.in addition, decreased vagal tone and less motor maturity are common in infants born to mothers who had antenatal depression. This makes them to cry more have constant changes in behavioral changes. Mental development scores are lower in children who her born to depressed mothers.

In conclusion, antenatal depression has a numerous negative effects on development of a child right from lower birth weight to physiological, emotional and behavioral state. Educative programs should be set to create awareness to expectant mothers on how to live healthy lives so as to protect the wellbeing of their children in future so as to safeguard the future generation.

References

Breier, A., Schreiber, J. L., Dyer, J., & Pickar, D. (1991). National Institute of Mental Health longitudinal study of chronic schizophrenia: prognosis and predictors of outcome. Archives of general psychiatry, 48(3), 239-246.

Deave, T., Heron, J., Evans, J., & Emond, A. (2008). The impact of maternal depression in pregnancy on early child development. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 115(8), 1043-1051.

World Health Organization. (2008). Maternal mental health and child health and development in low and middle income countries: report of the meeting, Geneva, Switzerland, 30 January-1 February, 2008.

Talge, N. M., Neal, C., Glover, V., & Early Stress, Translational Research and Prevention Science Network: Fetal and Neonatal Experience on Child and Adolescent Mental Health. (2007). Antenatal maternal stress and long‐term effects on child neurodevelopment: how and why?. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 48(3‐4), 245-261.

O’connor, T. G., Heron, J., Golding, J., Beveridge, M., & Glover, V. (2002). Maternal antenatal anxiety and children’s behavioural/emotional problems at 4 years: Report from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 180(6), 502-508.