By Pa Ousman Marog
A professor at Imperial College in London, UK has described depression as the most common major complication of maternity adding that women have many symptoms of depression and anxiety during pregnancy and postnatal. She encouraged men to be more patient with women particularly during pregnancy.
Mrs Vivette Glover was making a presentation on antenatal stress, anxiety, depression and child outcomes at the NaNA conference hall recently.
She described anxiety and depression as strong risk factors for postnatal depression as pregnancy can be a time of increased domestic abuse and relationship strain.
On prenatal stress, Professor Glover said it is more common in low and middle income countries (LMIC) noting that pregnancy specific anxiety can result to high levels of infant and maternal death. She admitted that interpersonal conflict may be common but the effects of natural disasters, wars and refugees can have consequences.
She warned that the mother’s emotional state in pregnancy can have long lasting effects on her child. She further explained that the environment of the womb during different sensitive periods for specific outcomes can alter the development of the fetus with a long lasting effect on the child. She urged mothers to practice early mothering to help in attachment and counteracting some things that happened in the womb.
Apart from extreme of toxic stress or diagnosed mental illness, Professor Glover cited maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression; maternal daily hassles; pregnancy specific anxiety; domestic abuse; partner or family discord; distress caused by war and acute disasters as examples of prenatal stress. These, she said, are associated with increased risk of changes in the development and behavior in the child.
As a result, she said the child may face the risk of anxiety and depression, behavioural problems, conduct disorder, impaired cognitive development, sleep problems, more difficult temperament, victimization, schizophrenia, autism and autism spectrum.
Children may have increased risk for reduced gestational age, preterm delivery and shorter lifespan. Other factors in LMIC include higher rates of infection, extreme temperatures, dietary deficiencies and altered microbiome.
She cited a New ALSPAC study (8588 by Castro, Glover and O’Connor in prepn) which revealed that exclusive breastfeeding at one month help outcomes, IQ and hyperactivity but not emotional stress and conduct disorder.
She said some of the problems in LMIC are lack of trained professional psychologists and psychiatrists, concept of depression-use of questionnaires, local understanding of the nature of mental illness and barriers to seeking help.
The event was coordinated by Mr Buba Darboe, Senior Programme Officer at the Health Promotion and Education Directorate of the Ministry of Health.