Maternal mental health impacts 2-year cognitive and language outcomes in infants born before 30 weeks of gestation

Introduction Parental mental health (MH) plays a key role in stimulating development and is potentially amenable to intervention. Our aim was to determine whether maternal MH affects 2-year outcomes in infants born before 30 weeks of gestation. Methods MH variables routinely available at booking were collected for infants born before 30 weeks of gestation in a tertiary neonatal unit. An abnormal outcome was defined as a Bayley score of ≤85 in the cognitive or language domains at 24 months of corrected age. Logistic regression was performed, adjusting for demographic and clinical variables. Results Of the 204 infants included, the mean gestational age was 26.7 weeks (SD 2.0). Anxiety was documented in 8.8% (18) of mothers, depression in 5.4% (11), anxiety/depression in 4.4% (9), and other MH diagnoses in 3.4% (7). Twelve mothers (5.9%) were prescribed MH medication at booking, and another 10 (5.0%) had required medication previously. Infants whose mothers required medication had 3.8 (1.5–9.5) times the odds of a low cognitive and language score. After adjustment, this increased to 6.3 (1.6–25.5) for cognition but remained similar for language. The mean cognitive score was 88.9 (SD 19.9) for infants whose mothers required medication, compared to 99.0 (SD 17.6) for those who did not ( p = 0.03). The mean language score was 85.4 (SD 20.1) for infants whose mothers required medication, compared to 98.5 (SD 18) for those who did not. Infants whose mothers required medication were more than twice as likely to have low cognitive and language scores (45% vs. 21% and 50% vs. 24%, respectively). Discussion Maternal MH, at a severity that requires pharmacological treatment, may increase the odds of low cognitive and language scores in infants born before 30 weeks of gestation. Infants whose mothers required medication were more than twice as likely to have low scores. These families may benefit from additional support.