The development of a baby is a delicate process that any environmental factor can affect, and the mother's depression can be one of the most influential factors. But, Can that depression affect the baby during pregnancy?
We have already seen on other occasions that it can affect, and now a recent study indicates that Depression of the pregnant woman can alter a crucial period of language development in babies even when they are not born, so that adequate treatment of this psychological disorder is essential in the future mother.
We have already seen on other occasions that the linguistic capacity of babies is immense, since they are very small, and that even before birth, in the womb, they receive linguistic stimuli and are able to recognize different languages ("bilingual" babies before being born). So it is logical to think that this capacity can be diminished by a disease of the mother.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia, Harvard University and the Children's Hospital of British Columbia have published their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The article is entitled "Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and depressed maternal mood alter trajectory of infant speech perception": "Prenatal exposure to antidepressants and maternal depression alters the path of perception of child speech."
The study found that treating maternal depression with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs, the most prescribed antidepressants) may accelerate infants' ability to tune into sounds and their mother tongue while untreated maternal depression It can prolong the adjustment period.
The study followed three groups of mothers. One received treatment for depression with SSRIs; another group was from mothers who had depression but did not take antidepressants; and a third group without symptoms of depression.
By measuring changes in heart rate and eye movement to sounds and video images of native and non-native languages, the researchers calculated the language development of babies in the womb at 36 weeks gestation.
Fetuses of untreated mothers showed a alteration in neuronal plasticity, which would make them less sensitive to stimuli (to which perhaps the least custom could be added to these linguistic stimuli: mothers who speak little ...).
However, scientists do not know if accelerating or delaying the development of language has lasting consequences in the subsequent acquisition of language, at least their studies in children aged six to 10 months do not make it too clear.
It is also not known if there are alternative development pathways to antidepressant drugs, so we must continue investigating in this regard. For now, it is known that the depression of the pregnant woman can affect the baby's language already from the mother's womb If the disease is not treated, often ignored or underestimated.
