Infant crying problems related to maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy: a prospective cohort study

Abstract

Background Infant crying may cause concerns among new parents and is a frequent reason for seeking help from their general practitioner (GP). The etiology of crying problems in infancy is not fully understood, but recent studies have found associations with maternal mental factors. It is well-established that postpartum depression is related to infant crying problems while the influence of maternal mental problems in pregnancy on infant crying is less investigated. We aimed to explore whether maternal depressive symptoms or maternal anxiety during pregnancy were related to crying problems by the newborn child. Methods In this prospective cohort study, 1290 pregnant women and their newborn children were followed throughout pregnancy until 8 weeks postpartum. Depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms were assessed three times during pregnancy and again 8 weeks postpartum with the Major Depressive Inventory (MDI) and the Anxiety Symptoms Scale (ASS). Eight weeks postpartum the mothers were also asked whether their child cried in a way they found problematic. Multivariable regression was used to assess the association between depressive and anxiety symptoms during pregnancy and crying problems, and to adjust for potential confounders. Results We found statistically significant associations between high scores of depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms in pregnancy and infant crying problems. Previously reported strong associations postpartum between depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and infant crying problems were also observed in the present data. Conclusion These results indicate that mental problems during pregnancy are associated with having a child with crying problems after birth. If more focus is given to maternal mental problems during pregnancy, the healthcare system might be able to detect and help these women, which would be beneficial for both mother and child.

Impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on mental health in parents of infants with colic and on healthcare use

“…Several studies have shown that mental issues during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of having a child with IC after birth. 3 , 4 , 24 Increased psychological distress during the pandemic in pregnant women 14 could have resulted in more infants with IC. This could explain the increase in our study in the number of “excessive crying” diagnoses compared to the stable numbers of total paediatric diagnoses pre‐ and during the pandemic.…”

Infant regulation during the pandemic: Associations with maternal response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, well‐being, and socio‐emotional investment

“…Increased levels of parental psychopathology are a risk factor for early child development. Maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety are among the strongest predictors of child regulatory problems and externalizing symptoms (Reinelt et al., 2019 ; Ölmestig et al., 2021 ). In addition, higher parental stress levels can affect child development via parental investment and parenting behavior (Bradley et al., 1997 ; Neppl et al., 2016 ).…”

Maternal mental health: Women’s voices and data from across the globe

“…A mental health related measure needs to be well developed and thoroughly validated, with clear definition and scope, to ensure clarity of findings, meaningful interpretation and reproducibility. This Collection includes large and small scale studies, cross-sectional studies [5,16,11], cohort studies [18,22] and studies validating new screening or measurement tools [8,13,17].…”

“…Where factors were identified which predict poorer perinatal mental health, these were commonly associated with disadvantage and limited access to resources. Associations with possible predictors, including pregnancy acceptability [34], self-care [35], childhood trauma [36], alcohol and substance misuse [36] and infant crying [22] were explored. Other demographic and individual characteristics were recognised by some researchers as key in understanding some of the associations with poor, positive or improved mental health.…”