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Less daylight during the third trimester of pregnancy can increase the risk of developing a woman postpartum depression once the baby is born, suggests new research. The findings, published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine, suggest that clinicians must encourage women at risk to increase their exposure to natural light and Vitamin D.
"Women should be encouraged to be frequently exposed to daylight throughout their pregnancy to improve their vitamin D levels," said Deepika Goyal, lead author of the study, San Jose State University. in the USA.
Clinicians should also advise their patients to do more exercise outdoors when weather and security permit, she added. In this study, Goyal and colleagues at the University of California at San Francisco analyzed available information regarding 293 women who participated in one of two randomized controlled trials of sleep before and after pregnancy . The participants were all mothers for the first time from the US state of California.
The data included the amount of daylight during the last trimester of pregnancy, as well as information on known risk factors such as history of depression, age of the woman, her socio-economic status, and length of time. of his sleep. Overall, participants had a risk of depression of 30%. The analysis suggested that the number of daylight hours a woman had been exposed to during her last month of pregnancy and which, right after birth, had a major influence on the likelihood of developing depressive symptoms.
The lowest risk of depression (26%) was among women whose last trimester coincided with the seasons with longer hours of light. Depression scores were highest (35%) among women whose last trimester coincided with "short" days and symptoms continued to be more severe after the birth of their baby in this group of women, said the 39; study.
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First published: September 29, 2018 12:26 PM IST
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