Expected millennial women are more depressed during pregnancy than 25-year-old women, study finds

Researchers attributed the "millennial crisis of mental health" to academic pressure, perfectionism, declining wages and social media, among others. A new study adds a pregnancy to the list: Young women are more likely to feel depressed before giving birth than their mothers have done a generation ago.

Depression among young mothers is 51% more prevalent than it was 25 years ago in a study published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Network Open.

The study followed two generations of mothers in southwestern England, all pregnant between the ages of 19 and 24, and found that women who gave birth between 2012 and In 2016, the study girls' daughters or their son's partners had higher scores on depressive symptoms tests than their mothers who were pregnant between 1990 and 1992.

Of the 2,400 first-generation mothers, 17 percent experienced prenatal depression. But the rates were much higher for their daughters. A quarter of the young women surveyed reported high scores of symptoms such as unnecessary reproach, sleep problems and worry.

The study attributes rigid working conditions, increasing financial pressures and difficulties in reconciling work and private life. Researchers warn that the risk of depression is likely higher in 18-year-old mothers who have not been included in the study.

"Given that the very young age at pregnancy is a risk factor for depression, suggest that, if anything, depression in [millennial women] is underestimated and the increase could be more great, "writes the principal author Rebecca Pearson

Keep up to date with this story by registering now

A pregnant woman poses in Vertou, France. Millennials are more likely to feel depressed during pregnancy than their mothers were 25 years earlier, a new study claims. (Photo by Loïc Venance / AFP / Getty Images)

The depression of a mother may indicate the same symptoms in her daughter. Nearly 54% of second-generation girls whose mothers were depressed during pregnancy reported depression before delivery, evidence that antenatal maternal depression is intergenerational

Women are twice as likely as men to feel depressed found. The gender gap starts young, as girls typically reach puberty before boys and experience earlier hormonal reworkings, and rates of depression between men and women remain unequal after menopause.

Similar hormonal fluctuations may explain diagnoses. are common during pregnancy and after childbirth. According to the Mayo Clinic, postpartum depression affects up to 15% of new mothers, caused in part by new sources of stress, hormonal changes, body changes and intense sleep deprivation

. experienced, can trigger depression, as can the "low-grade chronic stress" of long-term care provision, according to a letter from Harvard Medical School's Mental Health. And since women are on average poorer than men, the wage gap can also induce depressive symptoms.