The stress hormones or corticotropin releasing-hormone (CRH), play an important role in the development of the unborn baby. If a woman gets depressed during pregnancy, the CRH hormone shoots up which leads to triggering labor.
Experts believe that depression is the leading cause behind many of the 45,000 premature births that occur in Britain each year.
Researchers from Institute of Psychiatry in London, England found that depressed women had higher levels of CRH in their blood compared to the healthy women. The hormones lead to shortening of pregnancy length in the depressed women.
Since CRH levels increase naturally during pregnancy, it is more dangerous for women to be depressed during pregnancy. CRH is produced and secreted by the placenta. Also, babies born to women with depression had lower saliva cortisol responses at eight weeks of age meaning they are less able to react to stressful situations.
The Daily Mail quotes Dr. Veronica O'Keane, an expert in mental health in pregnancy as saying, "This abnormality in cortisol secretion would seem to be an inter-generational way of transmitting depression without it being genetic."
Suggesting the importance of treatment of depression, O'Keane said, "There is a myth, that doesn't have any scientific support that depression doesn't happen during pregnancy, that women are happy during pregnancy. But that just isn't true."
Premature babies, who are born before 37 weeks of pregnancy are more likely to die in the first weeks of life. If they survive, they are at constant risk to health problems, with one in ten developing a permanent disability such as lung disease, cerebral palsy, blindness or deafness.
