Baby Heartbeat Shows the Stress of Having a Depressed or Anxious Mother

When given a standard stress test, pregnant mothers dealing with anxiety or depression display physiologically stronger signs of stress. In turn, the babies show a significantly increased heart rate, leading to imprinted emotional stresses as they grow up, reports a new study.// The communication of mother and infant, particularly in the early months of life, plays a tremendous role in healthy development.

Some mothers, especially those suffering from mood disorders like anxiety, depression, or post-natal depression, have problems regulating infant's negative affection, which is believed to create insecurities in the kids as they grow older. Mood disorders such as irritability, mild depression, changing moods are common during the pregnancy and the postpartum period, occurring in 10-20 percent of women.

German researchers, in a preliminary finding, have shown that during the period where the mother withdraws attention, babies of anxious and depressed mothers had a significant increase in heart rate, on average, eight beats per minute more than that of the babies of healthy mothers. These babies were also rated by their mothers as having a more difficult temperament than healthy babies.

"To our knowledge, this is one of the first times this physical effect has been seen in three months old infants. This may feed into other physiological stress systems leading to imprinted mental health problems", said researcher Fabio Blanco-Dormond of the University of Heidelberg.

The researchers studied a total of 50 mothers and their babies: 20 mothers displaying anxiety or depression disorders around the time of birth, and 30 healthy controls. Each mother-baby couple underwent the Still Face Paradigm.

The researchers recruited a total of 50 mothers and their babies: 20 mothers exhibiting with depression or anxiety disorders around the time of birth, and 30 healthy controls. Each mother-baby couple underwent the Still Face Paradigm. Mothers were requested to play with their babies for 2 minutes, then to cut off all communication while maintaining eye contact. After two more minutes, mothers then resumed playful interaction. Throughout the analysis, researchers measured the heart rates of both mother and baby.

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The study found that if a mother was anxious or depressed, their baby had a more sensitive physiological answer to stress during the test than did the babies of healthy mothers. This was a statistically significant increase of an average of 8 beats per minute during the non-interactive phase.

Source-Medindia