Health, sociodemographic data, and pregnancy outcome in women with antepartum depressive symptoms.

Objective: To study whether women with antepartum depression have an increased risk for adverse perinatal outcome.

Methods: From a sample of 1,489 women, an index group (n = 259) of all women with depressive symptoms on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale in gestational week 35-36 was selected. Two hundred fifty-nine women with no depressive symptoms on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale antepartum or postpartum were randomly chosen as the reference group. Medical, gynecologic, and obstetric history, socioeconomic status, pregnancy, and perinatal data were collected from standardized medical records for all women.

Results: Women with antepartum depressive symptoms were more often multiparas with a history of earlier obstetric complications. Complications during the present pregnancy were more frequent in the antepartum-depressed group of women. There were no differences concerning outcome of delivery, puerperium, and neonatal health between the index and reference groups. Forty-six percent of the women with antepartum depressive symptoms had depressive symptoms at 6-8 weeks or 6 months postpartum or both.

Conclusion: Women depressed during pregnancy constitute a group without an increased risk for adverse obstetric or neonatal outcome but with a high risk for postpartum depressive symptoms.