Citation

Bleker LS, de Rooij SR, Roseboom TJ. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019; 16(19): e16193657.

Affiliation

Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands. t.j.roseboom@amsterdamumc.nl.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, MDPI: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute)

DOI

10.3390/ijerph16193657

PMID

31569453

Abstract

Depression and anxiety are highly prevalent in pregnancy, with an estimated prevalence of 12% for depression, and 15.2% for anxiety. Also, mild to moderate stress is reported by a third to more than half of respondents in healthy populations of pregnant women across the globe. Perinatal mental health problems impact maternal wellbeing and that of her direct social environment to a great extent. Moreover, early-life exposure of children to maternal psychopathology or stress, either chronic or acutely induced by a traumatic experience during in utero development or in the first years of life, could have long-lasting consequences. Prenatal exposure to an adverse environment may have an effect on fetal development through physiological intrauterine mechanisms, while the postnatal environment may adversely affect child development through the influence of negative parental behaviors and (lack of) care. Besides a potential direct biological effect of maternal stress on fetal and/or child neurodevelopment, many environmental and socioeconomic factors may interact with prenatal depression, anxiety and/or stress in affecting child neurodevelopment. The environment can act as a buffer for maternal stress or it can increase maternal stress and its effects on child neurodevelopment, accordingly. This is illustrated by the observation that chronic stress, depression, and anxiety in the prenatal period are consistently more prevalent in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Poverty, war, and domestic and/or sexual violence that occur more often in LMIC all contribute to the increased levels of stress, depression, and anxiety described in pregnant women. Knowledge about the actual moderating role of such risk or protective factors is important to be able to identify women at highest risk for stress or psychopathology during the perinatal period, and to tailor interventions in such a way that they benefit both mother and child...

Language: en