The influence of Maternal Mental Health in the growth of the child in different ethnic groups

Hello everybody:

Welcome to my last blog.  This blog is an analysis of a primary source about mental health.  

The article that I will analyze is “Maternal Mental Health and Its Association with Infant Growth at 6 Months in Ethnic Groups” . This article interesting me because most of the time we do not realize the importance of mental health and the impact that it have in our daily life. The cultural background influences mental health.  In the analysis of this text I will focus on methods and results of the study.

The text focus in mental health problems during pregnancy and how varies in different ethnic groups, as well as how it can benefit or harm the growth of the infant during the first six months. 

measure the growth of the baby at six months

The study takes place in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire (UK). The control group was the main ethnic group in West Yorkshire (House, Traviss &West,2012). The control group was compare with the 12,000 mothers of the experimental group (House et al.,2012). The experimental group was a combination of native white UK mothers and the first and second generation Pakistanis mothers(House et al.,2012).

The recollection of data in this study was based on measures. The measures were four: two before birth and two after birth all the data obtained in the measures were registered at the booking appointment. The first measure was during 8-12 weeks gestation the purpose of this was to get the weight and height of the mother(House et al.,2012). The second measure was during 26-28 weeks of gestation in this period the mothers respond a questionnaire which include questions about background and personal information related to health as well as the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28)* (House et al.,2012).  The General Health Questionnaire measure distress in the somatic and emotional way, the measure contain twenty eight items(House et al.,2012).  The items were   divided in four subscales; A) The somatic distress, B) anxiety,  C) social dysfunction and  D) severe depression(House et al.,2012).  In addition in this stage of data collection many body parts of the mother were measure .The third measure was at birth, they measures different  parts of the baby’s body such as; weight , head, arm and abdominal circumference(House et al.,2012).  After six months of the baby born the second stage of the procedure was repeated again including the questionnaire (GHQ-28)*(House et al.,2012) . 

 The article  results are the following.

The test GHQ- 28 reveal that during pregnancy the Pakistani mothers get higher scores in the subscales of somatic distress (F(2,1662) = 28.4, P < 0.001) and severe depression (F(2,1652)= 8.34, p< 0.001)  than  the White mothers (House et al.,2012). After six months of giving birth the somatic distress scale remain significant (F(2,1245) = 18.8, p< 0.001(House et al.,2012). The correlation between somatic and emotional symptoms during pregnancy were higher in both White and Pakistani mothers.

It is clear that there is a link between the ethnicity and the GHQ-28 score. The Pakistani mothers got a higher score in the GHQ-28 and that the score increased during pregnancy. The subscale of somatic distress was higher comparing to the subscale of severe depression.

Also it was found that factors such as consumption of alcohol since birth, smoking after pregnancy and severe depression of the mother are associated with infant growth.  White mothers who consumed alcohol since birth their babies increase their abdominal circumference by 0.7 cm. Similarly, the White smoking mothers have bigger babies at six months. In contrast, severe depression in Pakistani mothers was associated with low rate of growth in infants at six months. The   mothers that got 10 points in the sub-scale of severe depression their babies had 1.0 cm lower abdominal circumference at six months than the other babies.  

Show the distribution of the GHQ scores of the overall example at six months and 6 months

 

They were not found any correlation between the result of the GHQ-28 at six months and the infant growth at six months. Instead the study shows a link between the gestational age and the infant growth. “The mean gestational age was 39.6 weeks” (House et al.,2012). The decrease of gestational age was associated with social dysfunction. The results show that if the mother get 10 points  in the sub-scale of social dysfunction of the test GHQ-28 during the pregnancy, the gestational age decrease by two and half days. In this study the incapacity of take their own decisions and not be involved in important decisions were consider as social dysfunction. 

 result of GHQ-28 in pregnancy ( 26-28 weeks) In Pakistani women


The Pakistani´s babies at birth were smaller than the babies of the white mothers and it’s believe that is because of factors of deprivation that it is more common  in South Asian than other areas. The study was made in UK the Pakistani mothers and mothers from other ethnicity groups but the Pakistani  remain be influenced by the culture.  
In conclusion, This study shows the link between mental health and the growth of the infant. The women who suffer depression symptoms during pregnancy affect directly the growth of the child. Similarly, the mothers that suffer symptoms of social dysfunction have being affected with the gestational age of the fetus, therefore directly and indirectly these factors are associated with smaller babies at six months.   The ethnicity is being linked with depression symptoms and social dysfunction symptoms.  This factors influence the growth of the babies at six months. The Pakistani mother had smaller babies and had the symptoms, the study conclude that the Pakistani mothers had poorer mental health than the white mothers.

I believe that the mental health of the mother during and after pregnancy is crucial in the growth of the baby but there is also a genetic influence in the growth of the baby. All the factors that the study considered does not include genetics the white mothers   have predisposition to have bigger babies than the Pakistanis mothers. In addition, they did not consider malnutrition of the babies might be that the Pakistani mother do not feed correctly their babies.


Traviss,G. ,West,R, & House,A.(2012,February 10). Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Leeds Institute of Health Science,University of Leeds,Leeds United Kingdom. Maternal Mental Health and Its association with Infant Growth at six months in Ethnic Groups.Retrieved March 23,2012 from http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0030707.