女人先立業后成家更易患產后抑郁癥

2012-03-22 08:52

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'Feeling like a failure': Ms Haga said older mothers may have higher expectations of themselves

Women who wait to have a baby until after they have established their career are more likely to suffer from post-natal depression, scientists say.

Older mothers are more likely to 'over-prepare' for their first-born and struggle when things don't go as planned, a study suggests.

The findings are of great significance in the UK, where an increasing number of women are choosing to delay motherhood until they are more financially secure.

Research leader Silje Marie Haga, from the University of Oslo, in Norway, said: 'There are some indications that older, first-time mothers are vulnerable to postpartum depression, perhaps because they are used to being in control of their own lives: they have completed a long education and established a career before they have children.

'But you can’t control a baby; on the contrary, you have to be extremely flexible.

'Several of the women I interviewed said themselves that this contributed to the huge feeling of letdown when things did not turn out as they had planned.'

In the UK, there were 26,976 babies born to mothers of 40 and over in 2009, compared with 9,336 in 1989, according to the Office for National Statistics figures.

The latest study analysed surveys from around 350 new mothers as well as in-depth interviews with 12 first-time mothers. It found 16.5 percent reported suffering from depression for up to six months after giving birth.

Ms Haga said the interviews highlighted a number of risk factors apart from biological ones.

'It’s not the need for control in itself, but rather the failure to achieve specific expectations that can trigger a depression,' she said.

'In contrast, women who take a more relaxed approach to motherhood with more undefined expectations cope better with unexpected challenges.'

Other women struggled after the delivery left them 'feeling like a failure'.

One new mother told Ms Haga she struggled after having an unplanned caesarean section: 'That wasn’t how I was supposed to have a baby. I was so tired and so disappointed, I was so sad,' she said.

'I hadn’t been able to give birth to my baby; someone had to do it for me.'

'In my study the women who had the greatest need for control often had the strongest wish to have a natural birth,' Ms Haga noted.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)

科學家稱，那些等事業有成再要寶寶的女性更容易患產后抑郁癥。

一項研究表明，高齡母親更傾向于為第一胎寶寶做過多準備，當事情不按計劃發展時，就會很糾結。

這一研究發現對于英國人而言意義重大。在英國，越來越多的女性選擇在經濟上有保障后再生寶寶。

研究領頭人、來自挪威奧斯陸大學的西爾杰?瑪麗?哈加說：“有一些跡象表明，初次生育年齡更大的母親更容易得產后抑郁癥，這可能是因為她們習慣于掌控自己的生活：她們已經完成了多年的學業，并在生育前事業有成。

“但你無法控制一個寶寶，相反地，你必須非常能變通。

“我采訪的幾個女性稱，當事情的結果不像她們計劃的那樣時，她們會感到極其失望。”

根據英國國家統計局的數據，在英國，2009年出生的嬰兒有26976個是40歲以上母親所生的，而1989年這樣的嬰兒為9336個。