Mother’s mental health affects baby
8 Dec 2008 by Evoluted New Media
Babies carried by mothers suffering from mental illness face major challenges, sometimes before they are even born.
Babies carried by mothers suffering from mental illness face major challenges, sometimes before they are even born.
Researchers from the University of Manchester have discovered that women with a history of psychiatric illness are much more likely to give birth to babies that are stillborn or die within the first month of life. By studying almost 1.5 million births in Denmark between 1973 and 1998, researchers from the Centre for Women’s Mental Health at the University of Manchester discovered that the risk of stillbirth and neonatal death is at least twice as high for mothers with serious mental illness.
The cause of death for these infants varied, leading the researchers to conclude factors other than the mental illness itself may be coming into play. Women with other psychotic illnesses, including manic depression and drug and alcohol addiction, were also shown to be putting their unborn children at a greater risk.
Dr Kathryn Abel, who works in the university’s School of Medicine, said: “The fact that the link between the cause of death and the illness of the mother varies, suggests that factors other than mental disorder are involved. Lifestyle, such as smoking and poor diet, and less antenatal care and poverty can also increase the chances of complication during childbirth.”
By Leila Sattary
