Comparative study of birth growth indexes in depressed and non-depressed mother's newborns

Background

High prevalence and disabling quality of depressive disorder specially among the women, and on the other hand, Importance of birth growth indexes of a newborn on his or her quality of life give us a motivation for this research project.

The main hypothesis of this study was that: Depression In a pregnant mother is a risk factor for fetus normal growth and development.

Materials and methods

This study was a descriptive analytic cohort. It was done in primary care settings of najafabad health care network (Isfahan province, Iran), the first portion of data were collected with Beck depressive scale from whole pregnant mothers in 3rd trimester when they came to Primary care settings for pregnancy care follow up with a simple randomization method.

The other portion of data about birth growth indexes were extracted from family files after delivery. Collected data analyzed with SPSS statistical soft wave and x2 Test.

Results

Our sample size in this study was 300 pregnant women at 3rd trimester and their newborns. The prevalence of depression in pregnant mothers was 29.3% and this was meaningfully related to tendency to pregnancy but it wasn't related to age, previous abortion, physical Illness and demographic characteristic of parents. Based on other analyzed data the mean of weight, height and head circumference at birth of depressed mother's newborns were meaningfully lower than non-depressed group (p < 0.001 for all of them).

Discussion

The high prevalence of depression in pregnant mothers specially among unwanted pregnant and it's affect on normal development of their newborns growth indexes alert the health system and clinicians for effective methods of contraception and periodic screening of pregnant mothers for depression.