First time mothers of one 'at higher risk of depression'

A new study of maternal health has found that depression is more common when a child is four after a first birth than at any time during the first 12 months of a baby's life. The study evaluated 1,507 women at three, six, 12, 18 months and four years after giving birth.

Researchers were alarmed to find that women with only one child at four years after birth showed significantly higher levels of depression than women with one or two children.

Contributing factors reported were:

• Reporting depressive symptoms either in early pregnancy, or in the first 12 months after childbirth
• Being a young mother, aged 18-24
• Stressful life events in the year before the four year follow-up
• Violence from a partner
• Low income

But at four years after giving birth, 40% of women reporting depressive symptoms had not previously reported this.