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Maternal mood symptoms in pregnancy and postpartum depression: association with exclusive breastfeeding in a population-based birth cohort

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology volume 55, pages 635–643 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to evaluate the association between mood symptoms during pregnancy and exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months, as well as the association between exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months and maternal depression at 12 months postpartum.

Methods

Data from the Pelotas 2004 Birth Cohort with 4231 live births were used. Maternal mood symptoms during pregnancy were assessed through the question "During pregnancy, did you have depression or nervous problems?" and depression symptomatology at 12 months postpartum was assessed with the Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Information on exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months was collected through a dietary recall questionnaire. Crude and adjusted relative risks (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated by Poisson regression.

Results

Prevalence of mood symptoms during pregnancy was 25.1% (95% CI 23.8; 26.4%) and prevalence of EPDS ≥ 10 at 12 months after birth was 27.6% (95% CI 26.2; 29.0%). Prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months was 26.5% (95% CI 25.2; 27.9%). In crude analyses, maternal mood symptoms during pregnancy were associated with non-exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months and non-exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months was associated with postpartum maternal depression at 12 months. In the adjusted analyses, both associations were lost after the inclusion of maternal education (RR 0.92; 95% CI 0.81–1.04 and RR 0.92; 95% CI 0.81–1.03, respectively).

Conclusion

In our study, the crude association between mood symptoms in pregnancy, exclusive breastfeeding at 3 months, and postpartum depression was due more to the low maternal education than to a true relationship between them.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by Wellcome Trust, Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa (CNPq, Brazil), Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS), the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MS), Children’s Pastorate, and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001.

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Affiliations

  1. Postgraduate Program in Epidemiology, Federal University of Pelotas, Marechal Deodoro St., 1160, 3º floor, Centro, Pelotas, RS, 96020-220, Brazil

    Simone Farías-Antúnez, Iná Silva Santos, Alicia Matijasevich & Aluisio Jardim Dornellas de Barros

  2. Department of Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Alicia Matijasevich

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  1. Simone Farías-Antúnez
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Correspondence to Simone Farías-Antúnez.

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Farías-Antúnez, S., Santos, I.S., Matijasevich, A. et al. Maternal mood symptoms in pregnancy and postpartum depression: association with exclusive breastfeeding in a population-based birth cohort. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 55, 635–643 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-019-01827-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-019-01827-2

Keywords

  • Maternal depression
  • Postpartum depression
  • Breastfeeding
  • Cohort study