Women's Suicide in the First-Year Postpartum: A Population-based Study

In dominant suicidology there is a long traditionof theorizing that women are protected from suicide, particularly when mothers and during the postpartum. Studies have mostly confirmed the postpartum suicide-protection theory, with low suicide mortality generally observed among postpartum women. A limitation of these studies is that most were conducted in majority European-descent-population countries. A challenge to the more general maternal suicide-protection theory is that in East-Asia women of childbearing age exhibit substantial suicidality, nonfatal and fatal. This study evaluated whether suicide is less likely in first-year postpartum women as compared to women past the first-year postpartum.

This population-based, nested case-control study focused on women whose live birth was between 2001 and 2016 in East-Asian Taiwan. To ascertain suicide outcomes, the women were followed until 2017. For each suicide case, four control cases were randomly selected from the Birth Certificate Application dataset, with a 1:4 matching ratio based on age of last live-delivery and parity (one delivery record vs. two or more records) (cases N = 1571; controls N = 6284). Conditional logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess whether suicide was less likely in women in the first-year postpartum relative to women past the first-year postpartum.

The odds ratios of suicide were elevated at 42 days postpartum [Odds Ratio (OR) = 2.06; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) = (1.04, 4.16)], six-months postpartum [OR = 2.28; 95% CI = (1.60, 3.29)] and one-year postpartum [OR = 2.26; 95% CI = (1.76, 2.96)], when controlling for sociodemographic and mental-disorder variables. Suicide was more likely in women who were single at index birth, had lower socioeconomic status, or had a mental disorder history.

Our findings suggest that the postpartum stage is not suicide-protective per se. Whether the postpartum stage is associated with suicide protection or suiciderisk appears to depend on context and culture.