Childhood trauma and maternal perinatal depression during COVID-19: A stress sensitization hypothesis

Perinatal depressive symptoms (PDS) are a risk factor for maternal well-being during and following pregnancy as well as for infant development. COVID studies documented a definite increase in PDS during this period of heightened stress, but also highlighted that all women were not equally at risk of perinatal depression. This calls for the identification of factors that could contribute to sensitizing certain individuals to populational stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on the stress sensitization model, this study aimed to evaluate the associations between childhood trauma (CT) and depressive symptoms in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic at four timepoints (two prenatal and two postnatal).

A sample of Canadian mothers (N = 117, Mage = 29.77 years, SD = 3.18, 63.2 % primiparous, 98.3 % White, 23.1 % with history of CT) completed self-reported measures of CT (CTQ) and depressive symptoms (EPDS) during the first or second (T1) and the third trimester of pregnancy (T2), as well as at 2 months (T3) and 6 months (T4) postpartum. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were performed using MPlus.

Maternal severity of CT was directly associated with pre- and postnatal depressive symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. CT was also indirectly associated with postnatal depressive symptoms via prenatal depressive symptoms.

CT had an enduring association with postnatal depressive symptomatology in part due to its role in prenatal depression during the first COVID-19 outbreak. The implications of the results for perinatal care will be discussed.