Linking birth experience and perinatal depression symptoms to neuroanatomical changes in hippocampus and amygdala.

ABSTRACT: Childbirth is a life-changing event in a mother's life. While the transition to motherhood has recently been recognized as one of the most neuroplastic periods in adulthood, no study has yet explored whether the hippocampus and amygdala change during the peripartum in relation to childbirth experience and perinatal depression symptoms. In this longitudinal neuroimaging study, we assessed 88 first-time gestational mothers in late pregnancy and early postpartum and 30 nulliparous control women. We used optimized high-resolution MRI scans to quantify volumetric changes in the hippocampus and amygdala, along with their substructures. We found that increases in depression symptoms during the peripartum were positively correlated with changes in the right amygdala. A more challenging birth exper

SUBMITTER: Ballesteros C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11881921 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature