Quince Helenia, Walsh Tova, Thomas Alvin, Blackwell Dalvery
Sandra Rosenbaum Department of Social Work, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
Infant Ment Health J. 2025 May;46(3):247-259. doi: 10.1002/imhj.22156. Epub 2025 Jan 17.
Black women are more likely to experience traumatic birthing events, more likely to experience perinatal depression, and less likely to receive mental health treatment than women of other racial and ethnic backgrounds, and yet largely overlooked in perinatal mental health research. This pilot study seeks to understand how unacceptable racial disparities and adverse perinatal outcomes influence Black maternal depression and maternal bonding by exploring how prior traumatic loss moderates the relationship between depression and bonding during a subsequent pregnancy among a sample of Black mothers. We use survey data collected from 75 Black mothers as part of the Black Fathers, Equal Partners in Promoting Maternal and Infant Health study, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin Madison and the African American Breastfeeding Network in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Study results suggest there is a correlation between maternal depression and bonding; when traumatic loss is included as an interaction variable, it produces a moderating effect, changing the direction of the relationship between bonding and depression. As maternal depression increases, bonding increases when moderated by the variable traumatic loss. This finding has important implications for infant mental health research and practice, disrupting the expectation that depression necessarily poses a risk to maternal-infant bonding.
与其他种族和族裔背景的女性相比，黑人女性更有可能经历分娩创伤事件，更有可能患上围产期抑郁症，且接受心理健康治疗的可能性更小，但在围产期心理健康研究中却基本被忽视。这项初步研究旨在通过探究先前的创伤性损失如何调节黑人母亲样本在随后怀孕过程中抑郁与母婴联结之间的关系，来了解不可接受的种族差异和不良围产期结果如何影响黑人母亲的抑郁和母婴联结。我们使用了从75名黑人母亲那里收集的调查数据，这些数据是美国威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校与威斯康星州密尔沃基市的非裔美国人母乳喂养网络合作开展的“黑人父亲：促进母婴健康的平等伙伴”研究的一部分。研究结果表明，母亲的抑郁与母婴联结之间存在关联；当将创伤性损失作为一个交互变量纳入时，它会产生调节作用，改变母婴联结与抑郁之间关系的方向。随着母亲抑郁程度的增加，在创伤性损失这一变量的调节下，母婴联结也会增加。这一发现对婴儿心理健康研究和实践具有重要意义，打破了抑郁必然会对母婴联结构成风险的预期。
