It seems increasingly clear that the experiences of the pregnant woman will affect the future baby. If the mother suffers from anxiety or depression during pregnancy, she has a higher risk of her children being born underweight, a factor that predisposes to higher mortality.
Even, according to a recent study, the mother's mental health influences more than her nutritional or socioeconomic status. The work has been published in the "BCM Public Health" magazine and focuses on data obtained in Bangladesh, where low birth weight is a real health problem due to its high incidence.
The research is the result of collaboration between the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Committee for Rural Advancement of Bangladesh. He analyzed the mental health of 720 women in the third trimester of pregnancy and the weight of their children at birth. Of these, 18% suffered depressive symptoms and 26% anxiety.
The study reveals that these women were more likely to give birth to low-weight babies, and according to the authors this association is independent of the effects of poverty, the mother's nutritional status and the assistance received during pregnancy.
But the authors go further by stating that
The poor nutritional status of mothers, the main cause of low birth weight in poor countries, is not necessarily a product of poverty but of mental problems in women such as depression or anxiety.
In this way attention is paid to the mental health of pregnant women, which should be as important as physics in their care, and would reduce neonatal mortality.
We had already commented that stress is related to low birth weight and childhood asthma, and as we see the psychological factor is essential for the health of mother and child.
We must not only take care of our body, but also our mind during pregnancy. Because also the anxiety and sadness of the future mother negatively influence the baby.
