Prenatal care and adverse pregnancy outcomes among women with depression: a nationwide population-based study

To evaluate the quantity of prenatal care as a risk factor for giving birth to low birth weight (LBW), preterm, and small for gestational age (SGA) infants in a sample of women diagnosed with depressive disorder.

Our study used a population-based dataset, Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database, which we linked to Taiwan's birth certificate registry to identify a total of 5283 new mothers with depressive disorder. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to measure the risk of giving birth to LBW, preterm, and SGA infants, relating to the number of prenatal care visits (10 or more, 8 to 9, and 7 or less) made by mothers with depressive disorder.

After adjusting for a woman's age, monthly income, urbanization level of place of residence, geographic location, marital status, substance abuse, arterial hypertension, diabetes, anemia, coronary heart disease, malpresentation, insufficient or excessive fetal growth, placenta or previa abruption, and infant's sex and parity, regression analyses revealed that mothers with a history of depressive disorder who received prenatal care 7 times or less were 4.21 (95% CI 3.34 to 5.32, P < 0.001), 5.37 (95% CI 4.33 to 6.67, P < 0.001), and 2.41 (95% CI 2.03 to 2.86, P < 0.001) times as likely to have LBW, preterm, and SGA babies, respectively, compared with mothers with depressive disorder who received prenatal care visits 10 times or more.

Mothers with a history of depressive disorder who make fewer prenatal care visits were at an increased risk of LBW, SGA, and preterm birth, compared with women with a history of depressive disorder who made an adequate number of prenatal visits.