Women who give birth to a stillborn baby have an increased risk of long-term depression, up to three years later.
It is completely normal to be depressed after giving birth to a stillborn baby. But it can become pathological if the depression persists beyond the classic grieving process. Women who have already suffered from depression before this tragedy are known to be particularly vulnerable. American researchers show in the journal Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology that women without a history of depression are also concerned.
In France, the highest rate in Europe
In the United States, the delivery of a stillborn child (beyond the 20th week of pregnancy) occurs for one in 200 pregnancies. The number has not changed since 2003, as it is still 26,000 per year. France has, for its part, the highest rate of stillbirths in Europe, with 9.2 births per 1,000 in 2010.
Carol Hogue of Emory University in Atlanta and her colleagues looked at 275 women who gave birth to a stillborn child and 522 women who had a living, healthy infant. Researchers began to follow them six months after giving birth. According to them, this is the normal time of mourning in the event of the delivery of a stillborn child. Follow-up lasted up to 36 months and the study found a high depression score in 13% of women who gave birth to a stillborn child compared to 5% in those who had a live infant.
Follow-up for 3 years
“This study is the first to show definitively that women without a history of depression can face this risk many months after giving birth to a stillborn child,” says Marian Willinger, of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “It would be a good idea to follow women who have had a stillbirth for depression for at least three years after giving birth,” suggests Carol Hogue.
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