Mother’s anxiety and depression and associated risk factors during early pregnancy: effects on fetal growth and activity at 20–22 weeks of gestation

To examine effects of mother's anxiety and depression and associated risk factors during early pregnancy on fetal growth and activity. Repeated measures of mother's anxiety (State-Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S)) and depression (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS)) and related socio demographics and substance consumption were obtained at the 1st and 2nd pregnancy trimesters, and fetus' (N = 147) biometric data and behavior was recorded during ultrasound examination at 20-22 weeks of gestation. Higher anxiety symptoms were associated to both lower fetal growth and higher fetal activity. While lower education, primiparity, adolescent motherhood, and tobacco consumption predicted lower fetal growth, coffee intake predicted lower fetal activity. Vulnerability of fetal development to mother's psychological symptoms as well as to other sociodemographic and substance consumption risk factors during early and mid pregnancy is suggested.

Comorbid depression and anxiety effects on pregnancy and neonatal outcome

The effects of comorbid depression and anxiety were compared to the effects of depression alone and anxiety alone on pregnancy mood states and biochemistry and on neonatal outcomes in a large multi-ethnic sample. At the prenatal period the comorbid and depressed groups had higher scores than the other groups on the depression measure. But, the comorbid group had higher anxiety, anger and daily hassles scores than the other groups, and they had lower dopamine levels. As compared to the non-depressed group, they also reported more sleep disturbances and relationship problems. The comorbid group also experienced a greater incidence of prematurity than the depressed, the high anxiety and the non-depressed groups. Although the comorbid and anxiety groups were lower birthweight than the non-depressed and depressed groups, the comorbid group did not differ from the depressed and anxiety groups on birth length. The neonates of the comorbid and depressed groups had higher cortisol and norepinephrine and lower dopamine and serotonin levels than the neonates of the anxiety and non-depressed groups as well as greater relative right frontal EEG. These data suggest that for some measures comorbidity of depression and anxiety is the worst condition (e.g., incidence of prematurity), while for others, comorbidity is no more impactful than depression alone.

Mother's anxiety and depression during the third pregnancy trimester and neonate's mother versus stranger's face/voice visual preference

Background: Neonates show visual preference for their mother's face/voice and shift their attention from their mother to a stranger's face/voice after habituation. Aim: To assess neonate's mother versus stranger's face/voice visual preference, namely mother's anxiety and depression during the third pregnancy trimester and neonate's: 1) visual preference for the mother versus the stranger's face/voice (pretest visual preference), 2) habituation to the mother's face/voice and 3) visual preference for the stranger versus the mother's face/voice (posttest visual preference). Method: Mothers (N=100) filled out the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the State Anxiety Inventory (STAI) both at the third pregnancy trimester and childbirth, and the “preference and habituation to the mother's face/voice versus stranger” paradigm was administered to their newborn 1 to 5 days after childbirth. Results: Neonates of anxious/depressed mothers during the third pregnancy trimester contrarily to neonates of non-anxious/non-depressed mothers did not look 1) longer at their mother's than at the stranger's face/voice at the pretest visual preference (showing no visual preference for the mother), nor 2) longer at the stranger's face/voice in the posttest than in the pretest visual preference (not improving their attention to the stranger's after habituation). Conclusion: Infants exposed to mother's anxiety/depression at the third gestational trimester exhibit less perceptual/social competencies at birth.