We know that diabetes can pose a risk to pregnancy, and now we know that among the risks there is also depression for pregnant women and those who have given birth.
Specifically, according to a study by Harvard University in Boston (United States), those first-time mothers with low income with diabetes have about twice the risk of depression during and after pregnancy than those without diabetes.
These conclusions continue along the lines of previous studies that had shown an association between diabetes and depressive disorders in adults in the general population.
In this case, the scientists used data from the health care bases for people with low economic resources in New Jersey (USA) and included 11,024 women who gave birth between July 2004 and September 2006.
From these reports it was deduced that women with any form of diabetes were more likely to suffer from any indication of depression during pregnancy or after childbirth.
The research has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association with the title of "Association Between Diabetes and Perinatal Depression Among Low-Income Mothers" (Association between diabetes and perinatal depression in mothers with low income).
Studies like these help give the deserved importance to depressive phenomena in these very vulnerable stages of women, since in many occasions the depression is still undervalued or underestimated.
