Depression in new mothers

About one in ten people in the U.S. suffers from depression with women being twice as much at risk as men. Depression can affect the way people bring up their children with mothers' and children's development being affected. A team of researchers led by Robin Gaines Lanzi looked into this issue in a study of the first three years of children born to 682 mothers. 396 of the mothers were adolescent, 169 were 'lower resource' and 117 were 'higher resource.' The study found that the adolescent mothers had higher prenatal rates of depression and were more depressed six months after their baby's birth than the older mothers. As depression increased the mothers displayed less warmth and sensitivity to their children, were less responsive and spoke to them less and their children were less likely to seek out warmth from their mothers.

Lanzi, Robin Gaines ... [et al] - Depression among a sample of first-time adolescent and adult mothers Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing November 2009, 22(4), 194-202