Pre-pregnancy obesity and mental disorders during pregnancy and postpartum: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Maternal Depressive Symptoms During and After Pregnancy and Psychiatric Problems in Children

“…25 These included pre-pregnancy obesity (BMI !30 kg/m 2 vs. BMI <30 kg/m 2 ), hypertension spectrum pregnancy disorders (preeclampsia, gestational hypertension; yes/no), and gestational diabetes (yes/no). 21,25,34,35 Covariates These included maternal age at delivery (years), smoking during pregnancy (did not smoke/quit during first trimester/smoked throughout pregnancy), parity (primiparous/multiparous), chronic hypertension (yes/no), type 1 diabetes (yes/no), child's sex, gestational length (weeks), birthweight (grams), and family structure at childbirth (cohabitation/marriage vs. single parent), with data extracted from medical reports and/or Medical Birth Register; maternal history of physician-diagnosed depression before pregnancy (yes/no), psychotropic medication use during pregnancy (antidepressants, other [barbiturates, sedatives, antipsychotics] vs. no), alcohol use during pregnancy (yes/no), and education level (basic/secondary vs. tertiary), each self-reported in a questionnaire given to the mothers at 12þ0 to 13þ6 weeksþdays of gestation; and …”

“…Another novel contribution of this study was to account for possible confounding by common pregnancy disorders: pre-pregnancy obesity, gestational diabetes, and hypertension-spectrum pregnancy disorders. According to previous studies, these disorders co-occur with depressive symptoms 20,21 and are associated with offspring psychiatric problems. [22][23][24] …”

Consequences and Possible Predictors of Health-damaging Behaviors and Mental Health Problems in Pregnancy – A Review

“…There are also indications that women with excessive weight gain in pregnancy often also show symptoms of depression, which may be based on an association between dissatisfaction with their own body image and excessive weight gain in pregnancy [39]. Overweight and obese women were also more likely to have symptoms of depression during pregnancy and after the birth compared to normal-weight women [41]. Likewise, obese pregnant women appeared to have more symptoms of anxiety, although the overall findings on this point are less conclusive because of the limited number of studies and their lack of methodological quality [42].…”

“…After the birth women with a prior history of experiencing violence during pregnancy may have difficulty in establishing a close relationship with their infant which can increase the potential risk of child neglect and abuse by the mother [141], particularly if additional psychosocial risk factors are also present [142]. The previous sections have demonstrated that women who continued to smoke during pregnancy, who had an unhealthy or unbalanced diet, or who gained an excessive amount of weight, usually also had symptoms of depression and/or anxiety [38,39,41]. But it is still unclear whether mental health problems and stress affect the health behavior or pregnant women or whether health-damaging behaviors lead to depression or anxiety [45].…”

“…Psychological factors " prenatal depression/anxiety [51,53,54,59, 68] " stress/critical life events [54] " experience of abuse/ill-treatment [36] " stress/critical life events [52] " prenatal depression/anxiety [38,81,87] " stress/critical life events [38,76] " prenatal depression/anxiety [41,42] " stress/critical life events [45,48] …”