[Associations between Maternal Postpartum Depression and Psychosocial Factors Including Marital Relationship and Social Support].

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the psychosocial factors for postpartum depression as indicated by a high score of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), including marital relationship and social support. Relevant factors for antenatal depression were also analyzed.

Methods: Thirty-five wife-and-husband pairs who visited University Hospital A for the wife's antenatal health check-up participated in a questionnaire survey using the Japanese version of the EPDS.

Sex-specific effects of perinatal dioxin exposure on eating behavior in 3-year-old Vietnamese children.

Background: We previously reported that perinatal dioxin exposure increased autistic traits in children living in dioxin-contaminated areas of Vietnam. In the present study, we investigated the impact of dioxin exposure on children's eating behavior, which is often altered in those with developmental disorders.

Methods: A total of 185 mother-and-child pairs previously enrolled in a birth cohort in dioxin-contaminated areas participated in this survey, conducted when the children reached 3 years of age.

Prenatal dioxin exposure estimated from dioxins in breast milk and sex hormone levels in umbilical cord blood in Vietnamese newborn infants.

Dioxin concentrations remain elevated in the environment and humans residing near the former US Air Force base in Bien Hoa city, South Vietnam. We recruited 210 mother-infant pairs for whom breast milk dioxin levels were reported in our previous study. Cord blood samples were collected from 162 mother-infant pairs.