Women in their forties are more likely to become depressed, the study found. This may be because older mothers are more concerned about the course of pregnancy and the condition of their newborn baby.
An analysis of data from a Canadian-wide medical survey found that women in the 40-45 age group who had given birth in the previous five years had a five-fold higher risk of depression compared to a group ten years younger.
Giulia Muraca-Muir, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, has hypothesized that the cause of this surge may be due to increased health anxiety during pregnancy. “There is a lot of talk about the biological dangers of late motherhood, and it causes great psychological discomfort for women of this age,” she said, presenting the results of her research at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver. Fear and anxiety during pregnancy has been shown to be among the strongest predictors of postpartum depression.
Older mothers are also more likely to use artificial methods of conception, adding to the fears.
According to the earlier assumptions, the probability of developing depression after childbirth should decrease with age, because depression is associated with poverty and lack of life stabilization – phenomena more common among young mothers. “There is controversy about whether depression is less common in older mothers due to higher socioeconomic status,” added Muraca-Muir.
Her method of analysis took into account factors such as marital status and level of education, as older mothers are more likely to be married and have a good job, but even then, the researcher observed higher rates of depression among older mothers. Muraca-Muir speculates that there is a point beyond which any benefits of greater financial stability are offset by age-related health concerns.
The above research results are particularly worrying at a time when more and more women are postponing motherhood. In the last 20 years, the number of children born in England and Wales to women aged 35-39 has increased from 50 to 115. The number of children born to women between the ages of 40 and 44 also tripled over the same period to 26.
Previous studies showed no correlation between the incidence of postpartum depression and maternal age. However, postnatal depression is defined as the depressed mood observed in the months immediately following, not the five years following, as in the Canadian study.