Editorial: Mental Health in Pregnancy and Child Development: Implications for Mental Health Service Delivery

Abstract

Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are a significant and prevalent group of mental health concerns, and there are growing expectations for them to be identified and addressed in both obstetric and pediatric primary care settings.^1,2 Adversity during pregnancy, including maternal stress, depression, and/or anxiety, has been shown to be associated with adverse outcomes for the child, including emotional and behavioral functioning and changes in brain development such as cortical thickening and white matter structural differences.^3,4 There are multiple potential mechanisms to explain these associations, including ontogenetic vulnerabilities (ie, developmental changes in the fetal period) resulting from physiological effects of PMADs in pregnancy, as well as disruption of the early parent-child bonding relationship that often occurs with PMAD symptoms.⁵.