Newsflash: older moms may be prone to postpartum depression than younger ones. Such were the findings of a University of British Columbia study of 7,936 women as part of the nationwide Canadian Community Health Survey.
In short: women aged between 40 and 44 years who'd given birth in the past five years were five times as likely to have been depressed in the preceding 12 months than younger women, regardless of martial or socioeconomic status.
Ironic, perhaps, given that older moms tend to be more affluent and educated, factors that usually nix the odds of depression.
The reason for this, according to Giulia Muraca-Muir, lead researcher at UBC, is that older moms suffer from greater anxiety about say, the "increased health risks to them and their child, or the impact that time away from their job will have on their careers."
"We've identified a potential high-risk group that is growing rapidly," Muraca-Muir said. "We need to be able to counsel women on what the psychological consequences of late pregnancy might be." That means extra support from the medical community.
If you are an older mom, were you particularly anxious during and after your pregnancy? How did you deal?
Printer-friendly version