New Research Shows Positive Impact of Prenatal Mental Healthcare on Babies

New research from a University of Denver professor of psychology underscores the importance of mental health care for pregnant people—and suggests that treating depression during pregnancy can lead to longer gestation time and healthier babies.

“Broadly, we're really interested in understanding the intergenerational impact or transmission of maternal mental health and understanding how maternal experiences and mental well-being in pregnancy has intergenerational implications,” says professor Elysia Davis.

Davis worked with researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to examine how prenatal depression intervention can benefit both moms and babies. The results were overwhelmingly positive. 

“This is our first evidence of the intergenerational benefits of intervening in the prenatal period,” Davis says.

The collaborative study between DU, Denver Health and CU Anschutz found that treating and reducing depression symptoms during pregnancy is positively correlated with longer gestational time—that is, pregnant people whose depression is treated are able to carry their babies longer, which results in many benefits for babies.

“Being born early—shortened gestation—is one of the most widely known risk factors for a number of different child developmental outcomes,” Davis says.

As part of standard prenatal care, pregnant people are screened for depression symptoms. For this study, the researchers approached those who scored high on the screening and then randomly selected 226 participants who either received “enhanced care”—the usual prenatal care with some psychoeducation—or were enrolled in a program called MomCare, a form of brief interpersonal psychotherapy.

Davis says the MomCare program is ideal for this type of research for a couple of reasons.

“One is [that] it’s brief. It's only eight sessions, and psychotherapy can often go on a lot longer than that,” she says. “I think one of the interesting things about this treatment is that in a relatively short period of time, we were having a pretty dramatic effect on people's moods. That, I think, is one important piece.”

The other reason, Davis says, is that the therapists help participants come up with one or two things they would like to focus on in therapy. The most common concerns for expectant mothers? Complicated pregnancies and relationship conflict.

“Almost everyone did all eight sessions,” Davis says. “Our average was well over seven sessions. And I think part of the reason that was so effective is because, for many people, there are different kinds of barriers [to attending therapy], and we tried to come up with a plan for navigating those in a way they felt comfortable with.”

The researchers enrolled the participants from 2017 to 2021 and followed them through their pregnancies, measuring their gestational periods and comparing that to the type of treatment they received. 

The team will continue to follow some of these participants, extending their research into how depression intervention during pregnancy does or does not impact babies’ brain development—and their physical development, too.

“There's certainly good evidence that mental health and physical health are highly inter-correlated,” Davis says. “So, we’ll try and understand how improving mental health may link to cardiometabolic outcomes as well, in mom and baby—so understanding how improving mom's depression may improve health outcomes.”

Davis says, for her, the study underscores not only the importance of increasing access to prenatal mental health treatment but also the idea that providing support to people during pregnancy can benefit both mom and baby.

“I think one of the things that this trial does really highlight is that having strong social support systems and knowing who you can rely on and who you can count on is really beneficial,” she says. “Our intervention did target improving social relationships, but that's probably something all of us can integrate into our lives.”