Unintended Pregnancy Increases the Risk for Postpartum Depression
Having an unintended pregnancy increases the risk for postpartum depressive symptoms among women, while pregnancy through the use of fertility treatments does not increase the risk, according to the results of recent study presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s annual meeting.1
These results come as part of the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, a project of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that surveys US women before, during, and after pregnancy.2 Participants of the survey were from 36 states and New York City, and were categorized into 3 groups; women who conceived intentionally (n = 91,064), women who conceived unintentionally (n = 96,284), and women who conceived with the use of fertility treatments (n = 5535).
The researchers analyzed postpartum depression through two measurements of their own creation. The first measure was a continuous standardized measure of symptoms. The second was a dichotomous measure, which determined the participants who were one standard deviation above the postpartum depressive symptom mean to those who were less than one standard deviation away.
Both unadjusted and adjusted (ie, sociodemographics, relationship context, birth context, psychological health, and general health) means of continuous measure were included.
Compared with women who conceived intentionally and those who utilized fertility treatments, women who conceived unintentionally had more postpartum depressive symptoms. Moreover, women with unintentional pregnancy had higher unadjusted and adjusted predicted probability of having elevated postpartum depressive symptoms than women who conceived naturally and intentionally and those who used fertility treatments.
“These results add to the small existing body of literature that has sought to characterize and examine postpartum mental health outcomes for women that have conceived through the use of fertility treatments. While undergoing fertility treatments may be a stressful experience, our data does not provide evidence that undergoing such treatments increases women’s risk of experiencing [postpartum depression] relative to women who conceived naturally and intentionally. Instead, having an unintended birth increases risk of experiencing more postpartum depressive symptoms,” the researchers concluded.
—Leigh Precopio
References:
- Barber GA, Steinberg JR. Examining the association between infertility, pregnancy intention, and postpartum depression. Talk presented at: The American Society for Reproductive Medicine Annual Meeting 2020; October 17-21, 2020; Virtual. https://asrm.confex.com/asrm/2020/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/7783
- PRAMS. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reviewed February 20, 2020. Accessed October 22, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/prams/index.htm