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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Social support after stillbirth for prevention of maternal depression
Pamela J Surkan1, Ingela Rådestad, Sven Cnattingius
1Division of Clinical Cancer Epidemiology, Department of Oncology and Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. psurkan@jhsph.edu
Objective:
To study how social support is associated with ensuing maternal depression following stillbirth.
Design:
Data from a population-based national postal questionnaire. Setting. Sweden.
Population:
A total of 314 (83%) of all 380 Swedish-speaking women who gave birth to singleton stillborn infants in Sweden during 1991, identified through the Swedish Medical Birth Register.
Methods:
Postal questionnaires addressing maternal social support and demographics were completed three years following the stillbirth. The association between support-related factors and later maternal depression was assessed using multivariable regression models.
Main Outcome Measure:
The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.
Results:
In adjusted analyses, a father's refusal to talk about a stillborn baby with the mother was associated with an almost five-fold risk of later maternal depressive symptoms [adjusted risk ratio (RR) 4.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-14.5]. The mother's belief that she could talk with the infant's father about the child was associated with a reduced risk (adjusted RR 0.5, 95% CI 0.1-0.9).
Conclusions:
Unwillingness of the father to discuss a stillborn infant with the mother was related to subsequent maternal depressive symptomatology.
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