Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.

Recent research in economics emphasizes the role of in utero conditions for the health endowment at birth and in early childhood and for social as well as economic outcomes in later life. This paper analyzes the relation between maternal mental health during pregnancy and birth outcomes of the child...

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Main Authors: Falk A C Voit, Eero Kajantie, Sakari Lemola, Katri Räikkönen, Dieter Wolke, Daniel D Schnitzlein
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272210&type=printable
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author Falk A C Voit
Eero Kajantie
Sakari Lemola
Katri Räikkönen
Dieter Wolke
Daniel D Schnitzlein
author_facet Falk A C Voit
Eero Kajantie
Sakari Lemola
Katri Räikkönen
Dieter Wolke
Daniel D Schnitzlein
author_sort Falk A C Voit
collection DOAJ
description Recent research in economics emphasizes the role of in utero conditions for the health endowment at birth and in early childhood and for social as well as economic outcomes in later life. This paper analyzes the relation between maternal mental health during pregnancy and birth outcomes of the child. In particular, we analyze the relationship between maternal mental health during pregnancy and the probability of giving birth preterm (PT), having a newborn at low birth weight (LBW) or being small for gestational age (SGA). Based on large population-representative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and cohort data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we present extensive descriptive evidence on the relationship between maternal mental health and preterm birth by carrying out OLS estimates controlling for a wide range of socioeconomic characteristics. In addition, we apply matching estimators and mother fixed effects models, which bring us closer toward a causal interpretation of estimates. In summary, the results uniformly provide evidence that poor maternal mental health is a risk factor for preterm birth and low birth weight in offspring. In contrast, we find no evidence for an relationship between maternal mental health and small for gestational age at birth.
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spelling doaj-art-e24f208ea7d04e09a9b9e805330766b32025-08-20T03:01:21ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-01178e027221010.1371/journal.pone.0272210Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.Falk A C VoitEero KajantieSakari LemolaKatri RäikkönenDieter WolkeDaniel D SchnitzleinRecent research in economics emphasizes the role of in utero conditions for the health endowment at birth and in early childhood and for social as well as economic outcomes in later life. This paper analyzes the relation between maternal mental health during pregnancy and birth outcomes of the child. In particular, we analyze the relationship between maternal mental health during pregnancy and the probability of giving birth preterm (PT), having a newborn at low birth weight (LBW) or being small for gestational age (SGA). Based on large population-representative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) and cohort data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), we present extensive descriptive evidence on the relationship between maternal mental health and preterm birth by carrying out OLS estimates controlling for a wide range of socioeconomic characteristics. In addition, we apply matching estimators and mother fixed effects models, which bring us closer toward a causal interpretation of estimates. In summary, the results uniformly provide evidence that poor maternal mental health is a risk factor for preterm birth and low birth weight in offspring. In contrast, we find no evidence for an relationship between maternal mental health and small for gestational age at birth.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272210&type=printable
spellingShingle Falk A C Voit
Eero Kajantie
Sakari Lemola
Katri Räikkönen
Dieter Wolke
Daniel D Schnitzlein
Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.
PLoS ONE
title Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.
title_full Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.
title_fullStr Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.
title_full_unstemmed Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.
title_short Maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes.
title_sort maternal mental health and adverse birth outcomes
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272210&type=printable
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AT eerokajantie maternalmentalhealthandadversebirthoutcomes
AT sakarilemola maternalmentalhealthandadversebirthoutcomes
AT katriraikkonen maternalmentalhealthandadversebirthoutcomes
AT dieterwolke maternalmentalhealthandadversebirthoutcomes
AT danieldschnitzlein maternalmentalhealthandadversebirthoutcomes