Trait mindfulness scores are related to trajectories of depressive symptoms during pregnancy

Exploring possible protective factors against antenatal depression is important since antenatal depression is common and affects both mother and child. The person characteristic trait mindfulness may be such a protective factor. Because of the high variability in depressive symptoms over time, we aimed to assess the association between trait mindfulness and trajectories of depressive symptoms during pregnancy.

A subsample of 762 women participating in the HAPPY study completed the Three Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form at 22 weeks of pregnancy. Possible different trajectories of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores, assessed at each pregnancy trimester, were explored with growth mixture modeling.

Three EPDS trajectories (classes) were identified: low stable symptom scores (N = 607, 79.7%), decreasing symptom scores (N = 74, 9.7%) and increasing symptom scores (N = 81, 10.6%). Compared to belonging to the low stable class (reference), women with higher scores on the trait mindfulness facets 'acting with awareness' and 'non-judging' were less likely to belong to the decreasing class (OR = 0.81, 95% CI [0.73, 0.90] and OR = 0.77, 95% CI [0.70, 0.84]) and increasing class (OR = 0.88, 95% CI [0.80, 0.97] and OR = 0.72, 95% CI [0.65, 0.79]). Women with higher scores on 'non-reacting' were less likely to belong to the increasing class (OR = 0.89, 95% CI [0.82, 0.97]), but not the decreasing class (OR = 0.96, 95% CI [0.87, 1.04]). All analyses were adjusted for confounders.

Characteristics of trait mindfulness predicted low stable levels of depressive symptoms throughout pregnancy. Mindfulness-based programs may be beneficial for pregnant women as a strategy to alleviate depression risks.