Antenatal depression and the impact on infant cognitive, language and motor development at six and twelve months postpartum

Background: Antenatal depression is associated with adverse social-emotional and behavioural outcomes during childhood but there has been little investigation of the impact on infant neurodevelopment during the first postnatal year.

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of depression during pregnancy on infant cognitive, language and motor development at six and twelve months using a prospective longitudinal study design.

Participants: Pregnant women with a clinical diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD; n = 23), a history of MDD (n = 34) and a control group (n = 43) and their infants.

Outcome measures: MDD was measured during pregnancy and both maternal depression and infant cognitive, language and motor development were measured at six and twelve months postpartum.

Results: At six months, infants in the MDD group had lower motor development scores (M = 95.48, SD = 11.87) compared with controls (M = 99.97, SD = 10.64, p = .026) after controlling for maternal concurrent depression scores. At twelve months, infants in the MDD group had lower language scores (M = 87.33, SD = 10.54) compared with controls (M = 95.06, SD = 11.78, p = .037) which attenuated after controlling for maternal concurrent depression.

Conclusions: These data contribute to the growing literature investigating the impact of antenatal depression on infant cognitive, language and motor development within the first postnatal year. The association between maternal depression and lower infant motor scores highlights the importance of early intervention for both mothers and infants in situations where maternal well-being is at risk.