New study finds three quarters of Kiwi mothers don't feel their mental health was supported during pregnancy. Video / Carson Bluck Reporter / Wilhelmina Shrimpton
A first-of-its-kind NZ study has linked mothers’ smoking, stress and deprivation around pregnancy to depression in children and adolescents
It comes at a time youth depression rates are rising, with nearly a quarter of adolescents reporting symptoms
The study authors say their findings raise the need for intervention efforts
Children whose mothers smoked, suffered poor mental health or lived in deprivation around the time of pregnancy could be at greater risk of depression in later life.
That’s according to a first-of-its-kind New Zealand study that’s laid out potential intervention steps for at-risk mums at a time youth depression rates have been sharply rising.
While the reasons behind that trend are complex, the University of Auckland study turned to possible factors at the very start of children’s lives – the “perinatal” period of pregnancy and 12 months after.
The study team, led by PhD researcher Francesca Pigatto, began looking closer at the issue after observing concerning depression symptoms in children tracked by the longitudinal Growing Up in New Zealand study when they were just 8 years old.
University of Auckland researcher Professor Karen Waldie.
When the researchers checked back on the children when they’d turned 12, they found yet more reason to investigate their early life circumstances.
“Because we know that the pregnancy period and first year post-partum is so important for healthy child development, we looked specifically and collectively at certain risk and protective factors that showed strong links with depression,” said study co-author Professor Karen Waldie, of the university’s School of Psychology.
The team used a “cumulative risk” score to assess how many risk factors young people had been exposed to as infants.
Those risk factors included the mother smoking in pregnancy, suffering mental health issues like stress and anxiety, or facing material hardship.
Each of the more than 4500 participants was given a score based on 0 to 14 risk factors with higher scores linked to a greater likelihood of depression symptoms at age 12.
The researchers found that 23.4% of children had no perinatal risk factors, while 63.8% had one to three and 12.8% had four or more.
Waldie said the study, which was supported with a Marsden Fund grant, backed the need for early intervention measures in what was a “pivotal” time for child development.
“In my view, mental health interventions should be directed towards helping parents during the perinatal period and addressing multiple risks,” she said.
“Early interventions that address factors such as poverty, parental mental health, education about smoking, drinking and drugging during pregnancy, could prevent or mitigate this condition.”
Other protective benefits could come with supplementing folate, light exercise and breast-feeding.
Targeting just one risk factor, Waldie added, could have a meaningful impact.
“A targeted strategy can address health disparities by ensuring that interventions are directed to high-risk populations - thus making public health efforts more equitable and effective.”
Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
