Pregnant women often strive to reduce stress. Despite the pressure of impending childbirth and parenting, they work hard to maintain emotional stability. This is due to the fear that their psychological state may negatively affect the fetus in their womb.
If you are determined to be a good mother, it is necessary to continue those efforts even after childbirth. In particular, it has been shown that the mental health of mothers in the first year after childbirth has a greater impact on the child's neurological development than during pregnancy.
The research team from Toyama University in Japan analyzed the correlation between psychological distress in pregnant women and the neurological development of infants, using data from 82,418 mother-child pairs recruited for a birth cohort study. The researchers divided the survey periods into late pregnancy, postpartum, and one year after childbirth, and examined the psychological distress of mothers and the neurological development status of infants at each time point. Here, 'psychological distress' includes depression, anxiety, and stress experienced by mothers before and after childbirth. The degree of neurological development in infants was measured based on five areas used in early childhood development assessment tools (▲communication skills ▲gross motor skills such as rolling over and sitting ▲fine motor skills such as drawing and grasping ▲problem-solving and cognitive abilities ▲social skills).
The study found that the greater the psychological distress of mothers, whether during pregnancy or after childbirth, the more likely the child's neurological development was delayed. This was consistently observed across the five developmental areas.
In particular, the odds ratio (aOR) indicating the relationship between psychological distress in mothers during the first year postpartum and the child's neurological development was 1.25, which was higher than during late pregnancy (1.08). In other words, the more severe the stress of mothers in the first year postpartum compared to late pregnancy, the more delayed the child's neurological development was.
The results of this study were published in the international medical journal 《JAMA Network Open》 published by the American Medical Association (AMA).
The fetal brain develops rapidly until about the age of two, during which language, behavior, thinking skills, and social skills begin to form. Since the period before and after childbirth is crucial for the fetus, special observation and care from guardians are required.
The researchers stated, "The periods of pregnancy and childbirth can cause women to experience rapid stress due to physical and environmental changes, and the postpartum period is particularly a vulnerable time for mental health," and added, "The results of this study suggest that it is important to manage the mental health of mothers not only during pregnancy but also throughout the first year postpartum."
