Smaller babies due to depression

The birth weight of children decreases when mothers suffer from anxiety and depression.

The birth weight of children decreases when the mother suffers from anxiety and / or depression. In addition to alcohol, medication, feelings and emotions of the mother affect the course of pregnancy. However, it is only known that mental illness and restrictions can have a negative influence on the unborn child. Which are exactly, is still unclear.

Researchers from Sweden and Bangladesh found out in a study that women suffering from anxiety and depression also give birth to smaller babies than women who do not suffer from mental illness. The researchers published the research findings in the medical journal "BMC Public Health".

During the course of the study, the scientists around Hashima Nasreen and Maigun Edhborg examined about 720 women who were in the last third of a pregnancy. Even after birth, the researchers accompanied the women and their children over a period of six to eight months. A very high proportion of women suffered from depression (18 percent) and about one quarter of the subjects were suffering from acute anxiety. The scientists found that children's birth weight was much lower among mothers with mental limitations than mothers without emotional disabilities. However, the children were not premature babies, as the scientists emphasize. Therefore, the researchers are also very worried, because the children have a higher risk of dying: "This is very worrying, because children with low birth weight have a higher risk of dying," said study director Nasreen. This is a vicious circle that maintains child mortality.

Child mortality is extremely high in the Third World Land Bangladesh. About 42 children of 1000 newborns do not survive the first days after birth. Between one quarter and one third of babies in Bangladesh are acutely underweight.

Why the mental condition of the mother also has an influence on the birth weight of the child is so far unclear. However, the researchers suspect that stress hormones that are produced excessively in depression could hamper the growth of babies. However, it is also possible that depressive mothers care less about the well-being of their body and thus also the well-being of the unborn child is neglected. For this further studies would have to be conducted.

To counteract a pregnancy depression, naturopathy knows some effective methods. For example, American researchers have published a study suggesting that acupuncture may be effective in pregnancy-related depression. (sb, 27.08.2010)

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