Maternal postpartum depressive symptoms predict delay in non-verbal communication in 14-month-old infants

- Mothers' depressive symptoms during the first month postpartum were associated with infants' reduced varieties of gestures at 14 months of age.
- This association was not accounted for by perinatal variables, nor by history of depression, breastfeeding practices by 14 months.
- Infants whose mothers have postpartum depressive symptoms may be at increased risk of experiencing delay in non-verbal development.

We investigated the potential relationship between maternal depressive symptoms during the postpartum period and non-verbal communication skills of infants at 14 months of age in a birth cohort study of 951 infants and assessed what factors may influence this association. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and non-verbal communication skills were measured using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories, which include Early Gestures and Later Gestures domains. Infants whose mothers had a high level of depressive symptoms (13+ points) during both the first month postpartum and at 10 weeks were approximately 0.5 standard deviations below normal in Early Gestures scores and 0.5-0.7 standard deviations below normal in Later Gestures scores. These associations were independent of potential explanations, such as maternal depression/anxiety prior to birth, breastfeeding practices, and recent depressive symptoms among mothers. These findings indicate that infants whose mothers have postpartum depressive symptoms may be at increased risk of experiencing delay in non-verbal development.