Poverty Makes Motherhood a Depressing Experience

Putting a new and sobering twist on baby mama drama, a recently-released study indicates that more than half of poor babies have mothers who are suffering from depression.

While that's disturbing news for babies, since having a depressed mom can interfere with parenting and negatively impact a child's development, it's not necessarily surprising.

It doesn't take a Ph.D to understand that child-rearing is tough under any circumstances and therefore raising a kid, particularly a totally dependent infant, on an extremely limited income has to be stressful. When you are a mother living in poverty and have no idea how you are going to feed, clothe and shelter yourself, let alone your baby, the stress you're under can quickly slip over into serious depression.

Still, I doesn't hurt to quantify anecdotal observations.

According to the study, conducted by the Urban Institute, 55 percent of infants living at or below the poverty level are being raised by moms showing signs of mild to severe depression. "A mom who is too sad to get up in the morning won't be able to take care of all of her child's practical needs," said the Institute's Olivia Golden in the Washington Post.

In addition, the study, which followed 14,000 infants and their mothers, finds that at least one in nine infants born in poverty are being raised by mothers suffering from symptoms of severe depression.

Golden and her research team note that a severely depressed mother who is "not able to take joy in her child" is unlikely to talk to or play with her child. That sort of mother and infant interaction is key to a baby's successful development.

The study also indicates that a severely depressed poor mom stops breastfeeding earlier than other poor mothers. Eighty-seven percent of infants with depressed moms are breastfed for less than four months. (Doctors recommend that babies be breastfed for at least 12.) Not only does mother's milk contain all the vitamins and nutrients an infant needs, it is also packed with substances that protect babies from infections, illnesses and allergies.

Not surprisingly, given the state of our public health system, most of the poor mothers followed in the study weren't being treated for depression. Only 30 percent of the severely depressed mothers had received any sort of medical treatment or counseling, which points to another finding.

Severely depressed poor moms are also more likely to be binge drinkers, says the Urban Institute research.

Isn't that called "self-medicating"? A mom trying to lift her spirits,  or dull the pain, with alcohol or drugs  is a danger to herself and her baby.

Earlier this year the University of Rochester Medical Center conducted a similar but smaller study that also found low-income mothers to be at a higher risk for postpartum depression, or "baby blues." Again more than half of the mothers in that study (56 percent) met the criteria for postpartum depression, which can manifest itself in anxiety, insomnia, persistent sadness, lack of motivation and thoughts of harming oneself or one's baby.

According to the study, 14 percent of new moms in America are affected by postpartum depression, with poor and minority women suffering at much higher rates.

With the recession showing no signs of abating and the poverty rate steadily creeping upwards — 13.2 percent in 2008 as compared to 12.5 percent in 2007 — more mothers and their babies are going to be at risk.

However, all the news in the Urban Institute study isn't bad. It was noted that there are a number of federal programs poor mothers and their children can utilize to address issues associated with depression. The study specifically mentions the  WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children) program,  food stamps and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) as "presenting opportunities for policymakers and service providers to help these families." General assistance is always going to help. And more of it would help more.

Of course the best outcome for these mothers and babies is to get out of poverty. A pathway to employment that pays a living wage is the only real answer.

Still, if nothing else, these studies clearly show: Poverty takes the  joy out of motherhood.

Photo credit: Yuliya Libkina