Maternal PTSD evoked by traumatic childbirth and implications for mother-infant bonding in the critical postnatal period

• In Event: Beyond Depression and Anxiety: New Insights into Perinatal Maternal Mental Health

Abstract

Introduction: There are around 136 million women giving birth every year all over the globe. A significant portion of women will experience a traumatic stress response to childbirth and some will go on and develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this condition the child can become a cue of the traumatic childbirth and in turn provoke maternal PTSD symptoms to the detriment of infant’s health.
Hypotheses: 1. Traumatic childbirth and maternal PTSD are associated with physiological and neural alterations evoked by childbirth recall. 2. Maternal PTSD is associated impairment in the mother-infant bonding. 3. COVID-19 is associated with traumatic stress in birth and bonding problems.
Study population: The sample is derived from three datasets of postpartum women who were assessed in the early postpartum period. This includes a sample of over 3,000 postpartum women who were studied in the outbreak of the recent novel coronavirus pandemic.
Methods: Study measures included psychological, physiological, neural, and observational tools to primarily assess the childbirth experience, maternal mental health and mother-infant bonding.
Results: There are specific biological alterations in women with maternal PTSD related to childbirth, which resemble non-postpartum PTSD. The fear-based physiological and neural alterations and symptoms of PTSD are associated with impaired in the maternal bonding behavior. Women who gave birth since the outbreak of the pandemic endorse heightened stress response to childbirth which is in turn associated with problems in the formation of early mother-infant bonding. This suggests attention to peripartum mental health complications in the mother associated with COVID-19 that can subsequently confer risk to child’s health.

Authors

• Sharon Dekel, Harvard Medical School
  Presenting Author

• Roger Pitman, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Scott Orr, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anjali Kaimal, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lauren Hanley, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zohar Berman, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Helena JV Rutherford, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Linda C Mayes, Yale University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lisa Shin, Harvard Medical School
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tsachi Ein-Dor, Interdisciplinary Center
  Non-Presenting Author