Abstract
Risk for emotional and behavioural problems are known to be high among children of depressed mothers, but little is known about the impact of antenatal and postnatal depression on the physical health of the infant. Our one-year prospective follow-up study of 320 mothers and their infants in rural Rawalpindi, Pakistan, shows that infants of antenatally depressed mothers have poorer growth than controls. The relative risk for being underweight (weight-for-age z-score < -2SD) is 4.0 (95%CI 2.1-7.7) at 6 months and 2.6 (95% CI 1.7-4.1) at 12 months, while the risks for stunting (length-for-age z-score < –2SD) is 4.4 (95%CI 1.7-11.4) at 6 months and 2.5 (95% CI 1.6-4.0) at 12 months. Relative risk for ≥5 diarrhoeal episodes per year is 2.4 (95% CI 1.7-3.3). Chronic depression carries a greater risk for poor outcome than episodic depression. The associations remain significant after adjustment for confounders by multivariate analyses. It is concluded that preventive and treatment strategies for maternal depression could benefit not only the mother's well-being but also the infant's physical health and development.
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