Suicidal ideation: Prevalence and risk factors during pregnancy

Although suicide is the main cause of maternal death during pregnancy in industrialized countries, there are few research regarding the prevalence and risk factors of suicidal ideation during pregnancy, especially in Spain.

In a multicenter study, the sample included 1,524 pregnant women recruited from an obstetrics setting from two Spanish tertiary-care public hospitals. The prevalence of prenatal suicidal ideation was estimated by analyzing their responses to item 9 on the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). The risk factors (which increases the probability of having suicidal ideation) included sociodemographic and biomedical variables, and the stress subscale from the revised prenatal version of the Postpartum Depression Predictors Inventory (PDPI-R).

A total of 2.6% of pregnant women reported suicidal ideation. Risk factors of suicidal ideation during pregnancy include sociodemographic, such as prior history of depression (β = 0.120, p < .05), unemployment (β = 0.149, p < .05), and being an immigrant (β = 0.140, p < .01), and biomedical variables, such as previous abortion (β =0.169, p < .01) and assisted reproduction (β = -0.100, p < .05).

Given that the prevalence of suicidal ideation is higher than expected, the results of the study suggest the critical need for screening and designing preventive interventions adapted to pregnant women to decrease risk of associated suicidal behavior. In protocols carried out by midwives, specific risk factors should be included in health screenings during pregnancy.