ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2018
Maternal parity and perinatal cortisol adaptation: The role of pregnancy-specific distress and implications for postpartum mood.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- Depression, anxiety and stress in women with breech pregnancy compared to women with cephalic presentation-a cross-sectional study.Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · 2023Trial
- Association of pre-pregnancy and pregnancy sleep on the risk of postpartum depression: a nationwide birth cohort-the Japan Environment and Children's Study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Article
- Risk and Protective Factors of Perinatal Depression in Perinatal Latinas: a Systematic Review.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2026Review
- Diurnal cortisol trajectories from mid-pregnancy to one year after birth.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Mapping of Determinants of Urinary Sex Steroid Metabolites During Late Pregnancy: Results from Two Spanish Cohorts.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- New perinatal mental health conditions diagnosed during COVID-19: a population-based, retrospective cohort study of birthing people in Ontario.Archives of women's mental health · 2025Observational
- The Role of Education in Emotional Intelligence to Perceive, Understand and Regulate Emotions: A Quasi-Experimental Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Normative serum cortisol levels in second and third trimesters and their associated factors: A prospective cohort study from Sri Lanka.PloS one · 2025Article
- Depression and anxiety in Chinese pregnant women in the mid-phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in global women's health · 2025Article
- Time-course changes in fingernail cortisol levels during pregnancy and postpartum.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- No evidence for relationship between paternal post-partum depressive symptoms and testosterone or cortisol in first-time fathers.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Investigating Factors Influencing Prenatal Stress, Anxiety, and Fear of Childbirth During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany and Switzerland: An Online Survey.Maternal and child health journal · 2023Article
- Article
- 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
- Prenatal maternal depression predicts neural maturation and negative emotion in infants.Infant behavior & development · 2023Article
- Hormonal and behavioral responses to an infant simulator in women with and without children.Developmental psychobiology · 2022Article
- Ontogeny of the Dyad: the Relationship Between Maternal and Offspring Neuroendocrine Function.Current psychiatry reports · 2022Review
- Lifetime stressor exposure, systemic inflammation during pregnancy, and preterm birth among Black American women.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2022Article
- The validity of the residuals approach to measuring resilience to adverse childhood experiences.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2022Article
- Infant Developmental Outcomes: Influence of Prenatal Maternal-Fetal Attachment, Adult Attachment, Maternal Well-Being, and Perinatal Loss.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionCompared to women who have given birth before (i.e., multiparas), those giving birth for the first time (i.e., primiparas) show higher cortisol levels. Psychological factors may play a role; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activation is a well-described stress response. Primiparity also predicts greater risk for postpartum depression, which may be related to greater correspondence between cortisol and mood following prenatal cortisol elevations. The current study examined associations among parity, perinatal cortisol adaptation, pregnancy-specific distress, and postpartum mood.
methodsThis longitudinal study assayed serum cortisol levels among 137 women at early, mid-, and late pregnancy and postpartum. Pregnancy-specific distress and depressive symptoms were assessed. Maternal age, race, body mass index, sleep quality, depressive symptoms, and sampling time of day were statistically controlled.
resultsPrimiparous women showed higher cortisol levels than multiparous women during mid- (χ DISCUSSION: Cortisol levels and pregnancy-specific distress are higher in primiparas versus multiparas, with pregnancy-specific distress partially mediating the association between parity and cortisol levels. Cortisol levels and mood display correspondence at postpartum in primiparous but not multiparous women. While observational studies must be interpreted with caution due to potential unmeasured confounders, these findings suggest that future studies examining mechanisms underlying perinatal and postpartum hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal perturbations and designing interventions aimed at preventing related complications should carefully consider potential differences by parity.
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