IiSGM researchers demonstrate changes in women’s brains associated with depression and the childbirth experience
A study by the Gregorio Marañón Institute for Health Research (IiSGM) has discovered that the changes occurring in two areas of women's brains when they become mothers are related to the experience of childbirth and symptoms of postnatal depression. The hippocampus increases in volume in women who have a negative perception of their childbirth experience, while the amygdala also increases in women with postnatal depressive symptoms.
The findings of this study indicate that at the time of pregnancy, no significant anatomical differences were found in the brains of the women studied compared with the women without children who formed part of the control group. However, the structure of two brain regions did show changes between the end of gestation and the first few months after giving birth, depending on the childbirth experience and symptoms of postnatal depression.
Thus, it was determined that mothers who had a negative perception of their childbirth experience experienced a greater increase in hippocampal volume. Likewise, among those who showed a significant increase in depressive symptoms during the postnatal period, a greater increase in amygdala volume was observed.
This study, published in the journal Science Advances (DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adt5619), was led by the female scientists from the ‘Neuromaternal’ neuroimaging research group at the IiSGM, headed by Susana Carmona, a neuroscientist at the Madrid centre, together with researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
To carry out this research, magnetic resonance images were taken of 88 first-time mothers at two time points: at the end of the third trimester of pregnancy and during the first postnatal month. As a control group, 30 women without children were also assessed using magnetic resonance imaging during the same interval.
The findings establish a correlation, which is why the researchers will continue working to determine the causal relationship between these variables, as well as to identify the possible implications of the changes or their persistence over time.
The IiSGM researchers explain that changes in the brain during the transition to motherhood may be interpreted as adaptations to the challenging events of childbirth and motherhood, as well as indicators of possible vulnerabilities. This reinforces the need to continue advancing knowledge of the maternal brain and investigating the implications of perinatal experiences at this important stage of life.
The work contributes both to advancing knowledge of the maternal brain and to improving mothers’ health. Thanks to this study, knowledge of great value is being generated for the search for robust models that make it possible to predict, prevent and treat perinatal conditions such as postnatal depression, a disorder that affects almost one in five women worldwide.
“Childbirth and the postnatal period are moments of great emotional intensity that mothers remember throughout their lives. Their lives change and their bodies may change, a body that is also situated in and influenced by a context,” concludes Cristina Ballesteros, a researcher in the IiSGM’s Neuroimaging group and one of the authors of the study.
Established line of research
This line of research continues the path set out by an initial scientific study launched seven years ago. Since then, several studies published in Nature Neuroscience by IiSGM researchers together with the UAB have shown that the transition to motherhood is accompanied by reductions in grey-matter volume during pregnancy, followed by increases at the start of the postnatal period, without reaching the initial baseline.
“In recent years, we have seen how the changes that occur during pregnancy are similar to those that take place during adolescence, with both periods marked by a reduction in the volume of grey matter in the brain,” explains María Paternina-Die, also an author of the study and a researcher in the centre’s Neuroimaging group.