Maternal depression during pregnancy and children's physical development

Prenatal maternal psychological distress, particularly depression, has been increasingly recognized as a factor influencing fetal growth; however, its impact on early childhood development remains less well understood. The present study investigated the association between prenatal depression and children's growth trajectories, as well as the odds of overweight and obesity from 1 to 36 months, while also accounting for maternal anxiety and stress. We analyzed data from 4710 mother-child dyads in the Jiangsu Birth Cohort, assessing maternal psychological distress across trimesters and categorizing participants into groups with mild, moderate, and more depressive symptomatology. Children's weight-for-length z-scores (WLZ) were used to assess overweight/obesity prevalence, and growth patterns were identified through trajectory models. The results from the generalized estimating equations analysis showed that more depressive symptomatology during pregnancy was associated with a 28% to 41% increase in the odds of childhood overweight/obesity across all three trimesters, compared with mild depressive symptomatology. We identified five distinct WLZ growth trajectory patterns, and found that mothers with more depressive symptomatology were 39%–47% more likely to have children who followed a very-high-stable growth trajectory, compared with mothers with mild depressive symptomatology. These findings highlight the significant impact of prenatal depression on adverse growth patterns and childhood overweight/obesity, underscoring the need for early intervention.