Peer-reviewed article
Mother-infant bonding and postpartum depression during the COVID-19 pandemic — a risk for nurturing care and child development
Bárbara Portela Diniz, Sandra Josefina Ferraz Ellero Grisi, Danton Matheus de Souza, Ana Paula Scoleze Ferrer ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined mother-infant bonding and postpartum depression in 127 mothers and babies at a public hospital in São Paulo during the COVID-19 pandemic (February-June 2021). The researchers found that 29.1% of mothers showed signs of postpartum depression and that both depression and unplanned pregnancies were linked to weaker mother-infant bonding. The authors suggest that the pandemic's context of insecurity contributed to the high rates of depression and that impaired bonding could negatively affect children's future development.
Key points
- 29.1% of postpartum women screened positive for probable postpartum depression during the first 18 months of the pandemic
- Probable postpartum depression was associated with higher Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire scores, indicating impaired bonding (p = 0.001)
- Unplanned pregnancies were associated with impaired bonding (p = 0.004)
- The high prevalence of postpartum depression was attributed to pandemic-related insecurity rather than obstetric factors
- Impaired mother-infant bonding during infancy may affect children's future development
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study with no comparison group or long-term follow-up, so causation cannot be established and we cannot see whether bonding problems or depression persisted or affected actual child development outcomes. The study also does not identify which specific pandemic-related factors (isolation, healthcare disruption, economic stress, etc.) most affected bonding and mental health.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic Increased the risk of impairing the mother-infant bonding. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the early bond established between mother and infant and postpartum depression (PPD) in pregnancies that occurred during the pandemic period, to identify the factors that may have influenced these outcomes and to verify if there was an association between bonding and probable PPD. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of postpartum women from a public maternity hospital in the city of São Paulo conducted from February to June 2021, involving 127 mother-baby dyads. The initial data were collected in the immediate postpartum period and between 21-45 days after birth, using a semi-structured questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics, gestational and birth conditions, and baby characteristics; the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) were used to evaluate PPD and bonding, respectively. RESULTS: The presence of probable PPD and unplanned pregnancies were associated with higher PBQ score and risk to impaired bonding (p = 0.001 and p = 0.004, respectively). EPDS showed a high prevalence of PPD (29.1%) and was not associated with any Studied variable. Probably, this high prevalence of probable PPD was due to the context of insecurity secondary to the pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: We observed an increase in the prevalence of probable PPD and unplanned pregnancies during the first 18 months of the pandemic, which were associated with worse scores in mother-infant bonding. The impaired bond can affect the future development of children born during this period.