Relationships Between Maternal Perinatal Mood, Sex of Infant, and Disappointment with Sex of Infant in a North American Sample.

Abstract

Little is known about the relationships between sex of infant, disappointment with sex of infant, and risk for perinatal depression, particularly in societies where the nature of parental sex preference is thought to be "balanced" between male and female offspring. We sought to explore relationships between these variables in a North American population. In this exploratory study, we used data from a large Canadian prospective longitudinal study in which data were collected at up to four timepoints: during pregnancy, and at 1week, 1month and 3months postpartum. Data about sex of infant, maternal preference for, and disappointment in sex of infant were recorded at the first possible timepoint; while at each postpartum timepoint infant fussiness and EPDS scores were recorded. We performed a mixed-effects linear regression to evaluate relationships between these variables. In our sample of N = 207 women, EPDS scores were higher for mothers of male versus female infants, and independently associated with infant fussiness. There was no interaction between sex of infant and maternal disappointment, or between maternal disappointment and EPDS scores. Mothers of male infants may have slightly more depressive symptoms than mothers of female infants regardless of maternal preference for, or disappointment in sex of infant; sex-specific biological risk factors for PPD should be explored.