Women who have a history of depression before pregnancy are more likely to experience problems breastfeeding, according to research from Manchester Metropolitan University.
The first-of-its-kind study of more than 78,000 women found that a lifetime history of depression before pregnancy is linked to problems with both starting and keeping-up breastfeeding, and also to experiencing difficulties while trying to breastfeed.
Maternal depression experienced during pregnancy was also linked to problems with breastfeeding.
The research, published in the Archives of Women’s Mental Health, aims to ‘disentangle the complex relationship between depression and breastfeeding’.
The UK and many Western countries have some of the world’s lowest rates for breastfeeding as well as high levels of postnatal depression and anxiety.
It is known that women who have postnatal depression are less likely to breastfeed and a recent review reported that prenatal depression was associated with a lower likelihood of maintaining breastfeeding for longer than three months.
However, this is the first time that such a large study has made a link between breastfeeding problems and symptoms of depression pre-conception.
It is hoped the findings can help develop better support for new parents.
Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Manchester Met, Dr Elizabeth Braithwaite, who led the study, said: “Our research is trying to disentangle the complex relationship between depression and breastfeeding because we don’t know if mums who are depressed find it harder to breastfeed or if mums are struggling with breastfeeding, it causes them to be depressed, or it could be both.
“Probably the most surprising finding here is that any pre-existing history of depression, before a baby is even conceived, predicted breastfeeding difficulties.”
Participants drawn from a public health dataset in Norway, completed a questionnaire about their mental health during pregnancy, and about breastfeeding six months after giving birth.
The next phase of the research using this data, will be to fully understand the biological, psychological and social mechanisms that may mediate the relationship between depression prior to birth and breastfeeding outcomes.
Dr Braithwaite added: “This is really trying to get at what the mechanism might be. Why is it that women who are depressed don’t breastfeed for as long? Is it because they’re having more challenges?
“One possibility is that it is due to physiological changes, so we’re looking at whether experiences of depression might change how genes which are important for breastfeeding are regulated, such as oxytocin.
“It’s an important topic because the UK and a lot of westernised countries have got some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world and also really high levels of postnatal depression and anxiety, so trying to understand this relationship is really important, so that we can best support new parents.”
