Abstract
Prenatal depression is common and has been associated with risky maternal behavior, postpartum depression, and atypical child development. Still, its association with adverse perinatal outcomes is complex. The aim of our study was to look for this potential association in our region. The medical charts of women who were treated at our High-Risk Pregnancy Clinic and gave birth at our hospital were reviewed. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was used to discover prenatal depression. Patients who reported past or current mental illness were excluded. We enrolled 202 women at a mean age of 32.81. Twin pregnancy was the most common reason for referral to the clinic (17.3%). The mean EPDS score was 4.63 (±4.66), with 15.3% scoring 10 or more. A significant correlation was found between the EPDS score and intrapartum fetal heart rate abnormalities, as well as with low birth weight. There were significant associations between the EPDS score and the maternal status of genetic disorder carrier, and the number of previous pregnancies, miscarriages, and elective termination of pregnancy. This study demonstrates a significant impact of the maternal psychological state on the obstetric outcome. In addition, we observed a significant association between maternal obstetric history, genetic data, and the risk of prenatal depression. Our study shows that completing the EPDS questionnaire is a very important part of the pregnancy follow-up, as it illuminates risk factors for prenatal depression and adverse perinatal outcomes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1673-1684 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Psychiatric Quarterly |
| Volume | 92 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
Funding
We also disclosed a positive correlation between a high EPDS score and the knowledge that one of the partners is a genetic disease carrier. We did not find any additional studies reporting this phenomenon. In our country, the prevalence of carrying a severe genetic disorder is relatively high because of the high prevalence of Ashkenazi Jews in our population, as well as the traditionally common consanguineous marriage in the Arab communities. Consequently, population genetic screening is funded by our Ministry of Health and is available to all citizens according to their descent. It seems reasonable for a pregnant woman to be anxious and secondarily depressed, dreading that her unborn baby may possibly be harmed by her hereditary condition, independently of the actual mechanism of inheritance. Therefore, this subgroup of patients requires reinforced psychological support during pregnancy.
Keywords
- Birth weight
- Depression
- High risk
- Perinatal outcome
- Pregnancy
