Multiple birth ups risk of postpartum depression

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-02 16:38

NEW YORK – Pregnant women who deliver two or more babies are 43-percent more likely to suffer from depression 9 months after birth than their counterparts who deliver only one child, researchers at Johns Hopkins University report in the journal Pediatrics.

"Undergoing a high-risk pregnancy and delivering multiple births are stressful life events," notes the Baltimore-based research team, led by Dr. Yoonjoung Choi. "The unique demands of parenting multiple infants can result in high levels of parental stress, fatigue, and social isolation."

To examine the link between multiple births and postnatal depression, Choi's group analyzed data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort survey, which was conducted throughout the U.S. The study included 7293 mothers who delivered a single infant and 776 who delivered multiple babies.

The women were surveyed 9 months after the birth of their children in 2001. A standard questionnaire was used to determine if the women were depressed or not.

Nineteen percent of women with multiple babies had moderate or severe symptoms of depression compared with 16 percent of mothers of single infants. On final analysis, mothers of multiple infants were 43 percent more likely to have such symptoms than were mothers of single infants.

Among mothers of multiple births, having received infertility counseling had no significant impact on the development of depression, after accounting for education and socioeconomic status.

Choi and associates hope that doctors will take these findings to heart by using pediatrician visits as an opportunity to educate and screen mothers of multiple births for postpartum depression.