The Role Of Literature Of Maternal Depression During...

Evaluating the Relationship of Literature of Maternal Depression during Prenatal Stages. Depression can occur at any time. We often hear talk of postpartum depression or the baby blues, which occurs shortly after the birth of a baby. Though we rarely discuss depression that occurs during pregnancy or prenatal depression. There are estimates that as many as 70% of women will experience symptoms of depression during pregnancy, making it a widespread concern. However, these depressive symptoms are often more minor than a full flown diagnostic depression, which is typically only seen in about 10-15 of pregnant women. Maternal depression during pregnancy is a mood disorder just like clinical depression. Mood disorders are biological illnesses†¦show more content†¦This is why getting the right help is so important for both mom and baby. The effects of prenatal depression can affect the offspring for lifetime. Mothers often don’t think about the long-term effects of depression on their offspring because the topic is not talked about on a regular basis. Prenatal maternal depression is associated with alterations in the neonatal amygdala microstructure, shedding light on the timing for the influence of prenatal maternal depression on the brain structure of the offspring (Qiu, Anh, Li, Chen, Graboi, Broekman, Kwek, Saw, Chong, Gluckman, Frortier, Meaney, 2015). Exposure to prenatal maternal depression increases the susceptibility for depression in the offspring and associates with an increase in neurobehavioral, cognitive and socio-emotional problems. A study completed by the Biomedical Engineering and Clinical Imaging Research Center, National University of Singapore stated that prenatal maternal depressive symptomatology alters the amygdala s functional connectivity in early postnatal life, which reveals that t he neuroimaging correlates of the familial transmission of phenotypes associated with maternal mood are apparent in infants at 6 months of age. Prenatal maternal depression is also associated with elevated maternal cortisol levels that, in turn, predict an enlarged amygdala in 7-year-old children. As increased amygdala volume is associated with depression,