Introduction
The mother’s mental health can have a significant effect on the child too. Many psychiatric disorders are common during pregnancy and postpartum, and the commonest is depression. Because of the glorification of motherhood, the mother or pregnant woman often feels guilty for experiencing such negative feelings.
Psychological disturbances during pregnancy are linked with low-birth weight, inadequate antenatal care, and preterm labor. While psychological disturbances in the postpartum period are linked to the neglect of the newborn and reduced emotional involvement. And an important point to be considered is that maternal mental health can have an impact on child development right from the period of conception.
How Does Maternal Health Affect Child Behavior?
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Maternal-Fetal Attachment:
Maternal mental health has a significant effect on maternal-fetal attachment. Depression, anxiety, and substance abuse were linked to lower maternal-fetal-attachment levels. On the other hand, better psychological well-being and family support were linked to higher levels of maternal-fetal-attachment.
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Maternal Depression and Child’s Cognitive Development:
Some studies suggest a link between maternal depression and the child’s cognitive and language development. Some studies have shown that stress during pregnancy can negatively impact the child’s cognitive and emotional development. Stress during pregnancy also increases the child’s risk of developing language delay, hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety disorders. Children of mothers with chronic anxiety were found to have children with attention problems.
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Paternal Mental Health:
Depression in fathers during the antenatal and postnatal periods was also found to have a negative impact on the child.
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Infant Temperament:
The mother's psychological problems were linked to difficult child temperaments after one year postpartum. Anxiety in mothers was linked to difficult infant temperament, which included irritability, frequent crying, clinging behavior, and more. Proper treatment of antenatal distress increases the chance of the child having an easy temperament.
What Are the Mediators of Maternal Mental Health and Child Development?
Psychological problems during the perinatal period affect the child’s behavior and development.
The mediators of maternal mental health and child development are:
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Physiological Mediators:
Studies have shown that prenatal stress affects the functioning of the HPA (hypothalamus pituitary axis) of the offspring. Prenatal stress is seen to affect cortisol levels. The effects on the HPA axis depend on several factors, including the gestation time during which the stress develops, the nature of stress, the age and sex of the offspring, and more. Breastfeeding is vital in improving maternal distress and, thereby, child outcomes.
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Psychological Mediators:
Prenatal stress was linked to variations in cognitive ability and observed fearfulness in the child. Relationship issues with the partner were found to be responsible for most cases of prenatal stress, variance in infant cognition, and observed fearfulness. However, no association was found between prenatal maternal cortisol levels and the infant's memory and learning abilities.
How Does Maternal Depression Affect Child Development?
Postpartum psychiatric diseases are divided into three categories:
- Post-partum Blues: It is a common emotional disturbance characterized by anxiety, confusion, depressed mood, mood swings, and crying.
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Post-partum Psychosis- Post-partum psychosis begins one month after delivery; the symptoms include hallucination, delusion, and functioning impairment.
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Post-partum Depression- The symptoms of post-partum depression (PPD) are anxiety, sleep disturbances, fatigue, anorexia, suicidal tendency, etc.
The impact of post-partum depression on the mother is not only restricted to the child’s infancy stage but can impact toddlerhood, preschool, and school age.
1. Infant Development and Maternal Health:
The infants are daily engaged in interactive routines with their mothers. The mothers with mental health issues either show withdrawal or intrusiveness. If the mother is intrusive, the infant internalizes anger and a protective coping style. If the mothers are withdrawn, they will be disengaged and unresponsive to the infant’s activities. To cope with this, the infants develop a passive, withdrawn nature.
2. Effect on Toddlers and Preschoolers:
Depressed mothers are less responsive and attentive to their children’s needs. The children of such mothers were found to have a lower interaction capability and be more passive, and they often failed to have age-appropriate autonomy. They are less likely to get involved in individual free play. These children were also found to respond negatively to friendly approaches.
Maternal depression can also negatively impact the child’s cognitive development. Boys are more affected by their mother’s illness when compared to girls.
3. Effect on School Aged Child:
Maternal depression leads to anxiety problems, affective disorders, conduct disorders, and impaired adaptive functioning. It may also lead to attention deficit disorder in some children.
4. Effect on Adolescents:
Studies have shown that depression and other mental health issues are more common in adolescents with mentally ill parents than in the control group. The attention deficit disorders and language disabilities the child had in school often carry to adolescence.
What Are the Risk Factors?
It has been found that some children are more affected by depressed caregivers than others.
The risk factors are:
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Child Characteristics:
Boys are more affected by maternal depression than girls. Another factor is child temperament. Depressed mothers provide a negative appraisal of their child’s behavior and follow maladaptive parenting techniques.
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Contextual Factors:
Contextual risk factors include a stressful life, poverty, marital conflict, poor socio-economic factors, and lower maternal education. These increased the risk of maternal depression and negatively impacted the child's behavior.
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Father’s Role:
The non-depressed fathers may buffer the effect of depressed mothers in some cases. The chance of maternal depression negatively impacting the child was greater in cases where the father was also depressed.
What Are the Treatment Options?
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Family Therapy:
Children with depressed parents benefit from family therapy, which helps build resilience.
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Psychotherapy:
Psychotherapy is an interpersonal therapy that emphasizes interpersonal relationships and the problems of depressed mothers.
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Complementary Therapy:
Alternative and complementary therapies are other treatment options, but more studies are needed to analyze the effectiveness of such therapies.
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Pharmacotherapy:
Antidepressant therapy can be considered for fetal safety and the mother’s well-being.
Conclusion
Post-partum depression in women often goes unrecognized. Maternal depression is an important risk factor for the emotional, social, and cognitive development of the child. Many treatment options are available, like family therapy, psychotherapy, complementary therapy, and pharmacotherapy.
