No association between maternal psychological symptoms and infant outcome after pregnancy complicated by early-onset hypertensive disorders.

AIM: The aim of this work was to study the effect of maternal psychological symptoms on infant development 1 year after early-onset hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

METHODS

All mothers were enrolled in the Pre-eclampsia, Eclampsia TRial Amsterdam. Mothers were asked to complete the 90-item Symptom Check List (SCL-90) at the corrected ages of their infants of 0, 3 and 12 months. The total sum score of these three checklists was calculated. Infants were examined at the corrected age of 12 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Mental Developmental Index [MDI] and Psychomotor Developmental Index [PDI] subscales). The Bayley scores were compared between infants of mothers with SCL-90 sum scores in the highest 25% and lowest 75%.

RESULTS

For 141 mother-infant pairs (80%) all three SCL-90 checklists and Bayley scores were available. Mean gestational age was 32 weeks and 90% of the infants were growth restricted. The mean MDI was 87 in the highest 25% and 89 in the lowest 75% group. This was 79 versus 80 for the PDI.

CONCLUSION

In this population of high-risk growth-restricted infants born after a pregnancy complicated by early-onset hypertensive disorders, there is no additional impact of negative maternal psychological symptoms on infant development after 1 year.