Maternal Mental Health and Infant Development During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Details

• Alternative Title:
  JAMA Psychiatry
• Personal Author:
  Firestein, Morgan R. ; Dumitriu, Dani ; Marsh, Rachel ; Monk, Catherine
• Description:
  IMPORTANCE
  
  The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted an unprecedented need to rapidly investigate the potential consequences for maternal mental health, infant and child development, and the mother-infant relationship.
  
  OBSERVATIONS
  
  Globally, the mental health of pregnant and postpartum individuals has worsened during the pandemic regardless of infection status, and these concerning changes have disproportionally affected racial and ethnic minoritized people from underserved populations. Early indicators of infant neurobehavioral outcomes suggest that while in utero exposure to a maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection is likely negligible, limited data are available regarding the neurodevelopmental consequences for the generation of infants born during the pandemic. High maternal depression and grief during the COVID-19 pandemic are associated with lower levels of self-reported maternal-infant bonding. Yet nearly all published reports of child neurodevelopmental outcomes and dyadic functioning in the context of the pandemic rely on self-reported and parent-reported measures, which are subject to bias.
  
  CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
  
  In the context of prior research, and considering the paucity of research on infant neurodevelopment following prenatal SARS-CoV-2 exposure and birth during the pandemic, robust scientific investigation is needed to detect indicators of compromised early outcomes that could inform widespread assessment and accessible intervention. We simultaneously caution against reflexive apprehension regarding the generation of children born during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Child Child Development COVID-19 Female Humans Infant Mental Health Pandemics Pregnancy SARS-CoV-2
• Source:
  JAMA Psychiatry. 79(10):1040-1045
• Pubmed ID:
  36044207
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10016619
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  75D30120C08150/CC/CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01 MH126531/MH/NIMH NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  79
• Issue:
  10
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ab5e383af32af75f1be89adccbd3ee4dad705b4410004ad91a022758eba1979ce943ad81070e6339bdf3ed423037364e64d34510754cd03d5427d1c0be904de1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/155078/cdc_155078_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 70.14 KB ]