Grieving the death of a loved one can affect an entire family, including babies. In fact, losing a relative during pregnancy may impact the mental health of a child later in life, according to a new report.
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Researchers from Stanford University recently conducted a study, published in the American Economic Review, to determine the effect a family member's death may have on children.
To do so, they examined Sweden infants born between 1973 and 2011 whose mother lost a close relative, such as a sibling, parent, maternal grandparent, the child’s father or her own older child, during her pregnancy.
They followed those children through adulthood, comparing their health outcomes to kids whose maternal relatives died in the year after their birth. They gathered the data from their medical records and Sweden’s novel prescription drug registry, which contains all prescription drug purchases.
Lastly, they considered the impact the death may have had on the fetus, including fetal exposure to maternal stress from bereavement and even changes to family resources or household composition.
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After analyzing their results, they found that "that prenatal exposure to the death of a maternal relative increases take-up of ADHD medications during childhood and anti-anxiety and depression medications in adulthood," the researchers wrote in a statement.
Furthermore, they discovered the death of a relative up to three generations apart during pregnancy can also create consequences.
"Our study offers complementary evidence linking early-life circumstance to adult mental health, but breaks new ground by focusing on stress," the authors wrote, "which may be more pertinent than malnutrition in modern developed countries such as the United States and Sweden, and by tracing health outcomes throughout the time period between the fetal shock and adulthood."
To combat the issue, the researchers recommend that governments implement policies to help reduce stress during pregnancy. They believe such policies should especially target poor families as they are more likely to experience stress than more advantaged ones.
Although their findings are concerning, they hope they can better help expecting mothers have healthier pregnancies and birth healthier children.
“Of course, you cannot prevent family members from dying, and we certainly do not want our findings to constitute yet another source of stress for expecting mothers,” the scientists said. “But our findings potentially point to the importance of generally reducing stress during pregnancy, for example through prenatal paid maternity leave and programs that provide resources and social support to poor, pregnant women.”
