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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Maternal mental health during the perinatal period represents a critical determinant of the quality of maternal caregiving behaviors and of child development. Despite growing theoretical and empirical support for the dimensional nature of psychopathology as well substantial symptom comorbidities across the full spectrum of mental disorders in the general population (Krueger & Markon, 2014), perinatal maternal mental health research in both clinical and community samples has focused predominantly on depression and anxiety. This symposium presents findings from three empirical studies examining aspects of maternal mental health which, to date, have been relatively neglected by the literature. Paper 1 documents that higher maternal schizotypal symptoms during pregnancy are associated with elevated postpartum depressive symptoms and compromised observer-rated maternal and infant behavior. Paper 2 characterizes longitudinal trajectories of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms over pregnancy and into the postpartum. Paper 3 focuses on maternal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms following traumatic childbirth and demonstrates associations between biological alterations in maternal PTSD and impaired mother-infant bonding, including among women who gave birth since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. An expert in perinatal maternal mental health research will discuss the concept that the transition to motherhood represents a sensitive developmental period with opportunities for both risk and resilience in women’s mental health. Collectively, this symposium will underscore the need for more comprehensive approaches to assessment of perinatal maternal mental health in clinical and research settings.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chair

• Mariann Howland, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Discussant

• Laura Glynn, Chapman University

Individual Presentations

• Maternal Schizotypal Symptoms during Pregnancy: Links with Postpartum Depressive Symptoms and Mother-Infant Behavior - Presenting Author: Mariann Howland, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Non-Presenting Author: Curt Sandman, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Elysia Davis, University of Denver; Non-Presenting Author: Laura Glynn, Chapman University

• Intrusive Thoughts and Compulsive Behaviors During the Perinatal Period: Prevalence Rates and Longitudinal Course - Presenting Author: Colleen Doyle, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Non-Presenting Author: Mariann Howland, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Non-Presenting Author: Katelyn Day, University of Minnesota; Non-Presenting Author: Andrea M Maxwell, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Non-Presenting Author: Jed T. Elison, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Non-Presenting Author: Megan R. Gunnar, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• Maternal PTSD evoked by traumatic childbirth and implications for mother-infant bonding in the critical postnatal period - Presenting Author: Sharon Dekel, Harvard Medical School; Non-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