Bounty

Mothers-to-be who are anxious or depressed encounter more risk of having small babies which may die shortly after birth, according to research.

Feeling down while pregnant doubled the chances of women having a low birth weight baby, the study discovered. Scientists looked at the mental state of 583 women in the final three months of pregnancy in two rural areas of Bangladesh.

Over a quarter (26%) of the mothers studied suffered from general anxiety, while 18% were experiencing depressive symptoms. Just under a fifth (19%) later had small babies weighing less than 2,500 grams.

Anxious and depressed women were twice as likely to give birth to small babies than those who were mentally healthier, analysis showed.

"These women were much more likely to give birth to very small babies," said lead researcher Dr Hashima-E-Nasreen, from the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in Dhaka, who worked with colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

"This is a worrying problem, since low birth weight is strongly associated with infant death."

The findings were reported in the online journal BMC Public Health.

Copyright Press Association 2010