A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of antenatal anxiety on postpartum outcomes

Abstract

To systematically review and meta-analyze research investigating the association between maternal anxiety during pregnancy and outcomes for mother and baby following the immediate delivery period. MEDLINE, Medline In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, and the Cochrane library were searched. English-language, prospective studies providing data on outcomes following delivery in women with and without antenatal anxiety (defined by clinical diagnosis or score on validated scale) were included. Three-hundred-fifty-eight articles were retrieved and 13 were included. Titles and abstracts were screened; two reviewers independently reviewed full text articles, conducted quality assessments, extracted, and checked the data. Where available for > 2 studies, random effect meta-analysis was conducted and heterogeneity was quantified. Subanalyses explored moderators, regardless of heterogeneity, including type of anxiety assessment and timing, among others. There were two outcomes that were amenable to meta-analysis. Antenatal anxiety was significantly associated with postpartum depression (PPD) measured within 6 months postpartum (pooled odds ratio [OR] = 2.64, 95% CI 2.02–3.46; 8 studies), regardless of restricting analyses to those studies controlling for prenatal depression (2.45, 1.77–3.39; 6 studies). Associations were also significant when PPD was measured at 1–3 months (2.57, 1.94–3.40; 7 studies) and 6–10 months (4.42, 1.45–13.49; 3 studies). Maternal anxiety was also associated with reduced odds of breastfeeding (0.63, 0.53–0.74; 5 studies). Antenatal anxiety is associated with PPD up to the first 10 months, independent of prenatal depression, and with lower odds of breastfeeding.