Mª Fe Rodríguez Muñoz

Maternal mental health: consequences for babies

Pregnancy is one of the most important stages in a woman’s life, in which numerous changes occur, both physical and mental, which in some cases could be problematic and have consequences for her mental health. Likewise, during the perinatal period, women with severe mental disorders also require specialized follow-up. Some findings indicate that the mother’s mental health problems during the perinatal period may determine the child’s behavioral and emotional development into adulthood. Maternal care refers to all aspects of the pregnant woman’s prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum care. However, psychological aspects are still relegated to the background both for mothers and babies. In this presentation, we will analyze the empirical evidence related to: a) defining the various major disorders of this period; b) explaining the main effects of the mother’s mental health problems on the fetus and baby, both physically and emotionally; c) reviewing the protocolized systems for evaluating mother-baby interaction; d) reviewing the effective treatments available so far to improve such interaction.

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María de la Fe Rodríguez Muñoz is Professor in the Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatment in the Faculty of Psychology at the UNED, and Director of the journal Clinica y Salud. Her clinical, teaching, and research career has been developed mainly in the field of Perinatal Psychology. Since 2013, she has directed the Mothers and Babies Project, https://blogs.uned.es/mbc/ in collaboration with the George Washington University (USA), the San Carlos Clinical Hospital (Madrid), and the Central University Hospital of Asturias (Oviedo). She has published papers in national and international journals, as well as books and book chapters, focusing on perinatal psychology. She has also worked in the area of children in family foster care with Aldeas Infantiles SOS with whom she has published various studies.