What Effect Does Prenatal and Postpartum Maternal Depression Have on Children?
Postpartum depression is a serious illness that can occur in the first few months after childbirth. It also can happen after miscarriage and stillbirth.
The results of a large study do not support the notion that prenatal and postpartum maternal depression is particularly detrimental to children’s psychological development. Instead, the most robust effects were found for maternal depression occurring during children’s preschool years. The analysis examined 11,599 families including 17,830 siblings from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study. Using sibling comparisons, investigators accounted for genetic and shared environmental factors, as siblings share family environments and their mothers’ genetic risk for depression.
Read more https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/02/170224111030.htm
