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October 26, 2021 – New evidence shows how important it is to help mothers with their mental health during pregnancy.
Researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, have found that feelings of stress or depression during pregnancy are linked to changes in the placenta where the baby grows. Findings published in Epigenomics,, show that these changes can alter gene activity.
Stress and depression are not uncommon among expectant women, with depression affecting approximately 1 in 10 pregnancies, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
And current evidence already shows that depression during pregnancy can negatively affect the child later in life. For example, one study found that depression during pregnancy was associated with behavioral and emotional disorders in childhood, and another found that it increased the risk of depression at age 18.
To study stress and depression during pregnancy, NIH researchers evaluated 301 pregnant women from 12 clinics in the United States who had participated in an earlier clinical study. The group is ethnically diverse, with 34% identifying as Latin Americans, 26% as non-Hispanic whites, 24% as non-Hispanic blacks, and 17% as Asian or Pacific Islanders.
At the beginning of the study, women were asked to complete questionnaires routinely used to screen for stress and depression. They completed the questionnaire five more times during their pregnancy. Shortly after each woman gave birth, the researchers took tissue samples from the placenta and analyzed the genetics.
The purpose of studying the placenta, according to lead researcher Marcos Tesfaye, a doctor of medicine and postdoctoral fellow at the NIH, is that chemical changes can regulate whether a nearby gene can be activated.
There is evidence that chemical modifications in the placenta can lead to changes in fetal tissues, such as the brain, he said. And the placenta is known to produce neurotransmitters that are needed for fetal brain development.
The team identified 16 areas where changes in the outside of placental DNA were associated with depression during the second or third trimester. They also identified two areas where these changes were related to stress in the third trimester.
“Maternal depression leaves signals in the placenta in genes critical to fetal brain programming,” said study author Fasil Tecola-Aiel, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Eunice Kennedy Shriver of the NIH.
Two of the chemical changes associated with depression are close to genes known to be involved in fetal brain development and neurological and psychiatric disorders.
“The findings illustrate that the developing fetus is sensitive to the mother’s condition during pregnancy, including the mother’s symptoms of low mood and perceived stress,” said Dr. Talia K. Robakis of the Women’s Mental Health Program at Icahn Medical School. in Mount Sinai, New York, who did not participate in the study.
But Robakis warns that no clinical outcomes have been measured in newborns, meaning the study could not document any effects of maternal depression and stress on fetal development. Rather, the work helps to understand what mechanisms are involved.
“Pregnant women need to continue to focus on optimizing their own physical and mental health,” says Robakis. “And they need to know that a happy, healthy mother is the most important factor in helping to develop a happy, healthy baby.”
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