ArticleEvolution, medicine, and public health2016
Postnatal depression and reproductive success in modern, low-fertility contexts.
Article in Evolution, medicine, and public health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Perinatal depression management: A narrative review of guidelines and recommendations in chosen European countries.European journal of midwifery · 2026Review
- Trend of Antenatal Depression and Its Risk Factors Among Pregnant Women in China From 2016 to 2021: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study Under Multiple Fertility Policy Adjustments and Economic Development.Depression and anxiety · 2025Article
- How prenatal cortisol levels relate to grandmother-mother relationships among a cohort of Latina women.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- An evolutionary perspective on the association between grandmother-mother relationships and maternal mental health among a cohort of pregnant Latina women.Evolution and human behavior : official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society · 2023Article
- How a pregnant woman's relationships with her siblings relate to her mental health: a prenatal allocare perspective.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2022Article
- Communication Across Maternal Social Networks During England's First National Lockdown and Its Association With Postnatal Depressive Symptoms.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Postpartum psychiatric disorders and subsequent live birth: a population-based cohort study in Denmark.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2020Article
- Article
- Testing the psychological pain hypothesis for postnatal depression: Reproductive success versus evidence of design.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2017Article
- Reply to Hagen and Thornhill.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesPostnatal depression (PND) presents a puzzling phenomenon to evolutionary anthropologists as it is highly prevalent and yet detrimental to child development and maternal health. Adaptive explanations have been proposed, but have not been tested with data that directly link PND to female fertility. METHODOLOGY: A survey was designed to gather complete reproductive histories and retrospective measures of PND to measure the effects of PND on fitness. Respondents were born between 1930 and 1967, with the majority based in the UK during their childrearing years. The hypothesis that PND is detrimental to fitness is assessed using Mann-Whitney U tests on completed fertility. Binary logistic regression modelling is used to test the hypothesis that PND reduces the likelihood of parity progression.
resultsWomen experiencing PND at their first or second birth have lower completed fertility, with PND at the first birth leading to lowered fertility. Logistic regression analyses show that this is the result of reductions in the likelihood of parity progression to a third birth when PND is experienced at the first birth or when repeat bouts occur. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Our results call into question adaptationist arguments, contribute to the growing understanding of the importance of emotional wellbeing to fertility decision making, and given the economic consequences of markedly below replacement fertility, highlight a potential new source of financial incentive to invest in screening and preventative measures to ensure good maternal mental health.
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