COLUMBUS, Ohio --Nearly one-third of first-time mothers experience some symptoms of depression that go beyond postpartum blues, according to five years of research at Ohio State University.
In most cases, that depression is mild. But psychologist Ellen Hock hopes to raise awareness that depression isn’t unusual after the birth of a first-born child and that counseling can help.
“We wanted to find out what it was about a woman’s personality or environment that put her at risk, or that served to buffer her from depressive symptoms,” said Hock, professor of family relations and human development in Ohio State’s College of Human Ecology.
The research was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. These results are part of the final report the researchers sent to NIMH.
The research started with 199 couples recruited at childbirth classes and doctors’ offices. Hock and her graduate students surveyed and/or interviewed the parents before the birth and when the babies were six to eight weeks old, 9 months old and 24 months old.
The first studies conducted after the birth of the baby revealed that more than half of first-time mothers didn’t even feel the “blues” one to two weeks after the birth. However, at six to eight weeks, 18 percent of the women reported mild symptoms of depression, 7.5 percent reported moderate symptoms, and 3 percent reported severe symptoms. Most of those women reported depressive symptoms again in the two follow-up studies at nine and 24 months.
Hock, along with colleague Wilma Lutz, a nurse, asked the new mothers about physical health problems just after the birth. Thirty percent reported health problems; 7.5 percent labeled them as severe.
“Mothers experiencing physical health problems perceived their infants as more demanding and tended to view caring for their infants as more difficult,” Hock said. “On the other hand, mothers with psychological problems were typically more concerned that they weren’t doing everything right as a parent.”
Mothers with either physical or psychological stress had higher levels of guilt when infants were left with sitters and less resilience in coping with the demands of motherhood. In both cases, a low energy level and lack of sleep and support aggravated problems, Hock said.
In studies when the babies were 9 months old and 24 months old, Hock concentrated on exploring how a woman’s history, personality and current family context influenced depression.
Findings included:
Because effects associated with the risk factors listed above can be ameliorated through psychotherapy, Hock encourages women to seek counseling. Although medication can be helpful in treating depression, Hock believes that psychological counseling can be particularly effective because it can help women with current issues and also help them strengthen their ability to cope effectively in the future -- its benefits can be experienced over a lifetime, she said.
“It offers the potential for long-term positive life changes,” she said. Hock is continuing her research, studying depression among first-time fathers -- which may be more common than previously thought, Hock said. She is also following the children in these families to study how their parents’ feelings of depression might affect the children’s behavior.
Contact: Ellen Hock, (614) 292-5639; Hock.1@osu.edu
Written by Martha Carroll, (614) 292-9833; Carroll.11@osu.edu