Breast may not always be best: moderation of effects of postnatal depression by breastfeeding and infant sex

Biology of Sex Differences

Andrew Pickles¹  Helen Sharp²  Elizabeth C. Braithwaite³  Nicola Wright³  Jonathan Hill⁴ 

[1] Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London, London, UK;Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK;Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, Brooks Building, 53 Bonsall Street, M15 6GX, Manchester, UK;School for Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK;

关键词: Postnatal depression;    Breastfeeding;    Negative emotionality;    Sex differences;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s13293-021-00403-1

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThere is good evidence that female infants are particularly vulnerable to poor emotional outcomes following in utero glucocorticoid exposure. It is currently unclear whether such effects might persist into the postnatal period for breastfed infants, as maternal cortisol is expressed in breastmilk and is influenced by maternal psychological distress. We pre-registered hypotheses that maternal postnatal depression would be associated with infant negative emotionality, and that this effect would be moderated by breastfeeding status and infant sex.MethodsWe analysed data from the Wirral Child Health and Development Study (WCHADS), a prospective epidemiological study starting in pregnancy. Nine weeks after birth mothers self-reported depressive symptoms and breastfeeding status, and reported infant negative emotionality using the distress to limits subscale of the infant behaviour questionnaire (IBQ-R) when their infant was aged 9 weeks and 14 months. Maximum likelihood estimations made use of data from 857 mother-infant pairs.ResultsAt 9 weeks of age, maternal postnatal depressive symptoms were positively associated with infant distress to limits; however, this effect was not moderated by infant sex or breastfeeding. At age 14 months, the association between postnatal depression symptoms and distress to limits was greatest in the breastfed females, whereas the association was smaller, but still significant, in the non-breastfed females. For males, the association was non-significant in both the breastfed and non-breastfed groups. A test of sex difference between breastfed males and females was significant.ConclusionsWe provide evidence that effects of maternal postnatal depression on child emotional outcomes are moderated by breastfeeding status and differ by infant sex. Female vulnerability to elevated maternal breastmilk glucocorticoids may, at least in part, explain these effects.

【 授权许可】

CC BY