Maternal depression is more common four years after the birth of a woman’s first child than at any time during the child’s first year, new research shows. A Murdoch Children’s Research Institute study of 1500 mothers found that 10 per cent of women reported symptoms of depression a year after the birth of their first child – but this increased to 15 per cent four years after the birth. Women who experienced depression in early pregnancy or in the first year after giving birth were more likely to have symptoms of depression when their child was four years. But 40 per cent of women who were depressed when their child was four had not previously reported symptoms, suggesting their mental health worsened as their children grew older.

Lead author Hannah Wool house said the findings contradicted the prevailing view that mothers were most vulnerable to depression in the first couple of months after giving birth. ”This is one of the first large studies to report the prevalence over time of maternal depression in first-time mothers from pregnancy to four years’ postpartum,” she said. ‘The findings show the extent of depression affecting first-time mothers, even up to four years after the birth of their child. ”Principal investigator Stephanie Brown said vulnerability to depression in the post-natal period was not entirely due to hormonal and physiological changes, but also linked to major life changes that occurred for new mothers at this time. She said the higher rate of depression when children were aged four was not explained by the birth of a second or subsequent child.

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