BMJ  2004;328:820-823 (3 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7443.820

Education and debate

Effect of maternal mental health on infant growth in low income countries: new evidence from South Asia

¹ London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Sangath, Goa, India, ² School of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, University of Manchester, ³ Christian Medical College, Vellore 632002, India, ⁴ Institute of Psychiatry, London

Impaired infant growth, a major problem in South Asia, may require interventions to improve maternal mental health in addition to current interventions targeting infant nutrition

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Unicef estimates that over 220 million children aged less than 5 years in the developing world have significantly impaired growth.¹ The South Asian region is perhaps worst affected, being home to more than half of all the underweight children in the world.² This article considers the relevance of new evidence on the epidemiology and impact of postnatal depression in South Asia on poor infant growth in low income countries. This evidence shows, for the first time, that a common and potentially treatable mental health problem in mothers is one of the causes of infant failure to thrive. We use this evidence to present a case that child focused interventions, largely aiming to provide supplementary nutrition, may need to be combined with mother focused interventions that target maternal mental health.

Postnatal depression is depressive disorder occurring in the postnatal period and is typically diagnosed about 4-12 weeks after childbirth (see box).

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