Mothers of baby boys ‘more likely to be depressed’

Women who give birth to a baby boy may have a higher risk of developing postnatal depression (PND) than those who have girls, a new study suggests.

The research also says mothers of boys are more likely to have reduced quality of life.

Scientists from Nancy University studied 181 French women four to eight weeks after giving birth.

Just under a third of the women had PND and nine per cent had severe PND.

Over three-quarters of those with severe PND had given birth to boys.

Publishing their findings in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, the team said even if women did not have PND, giving birth to a boy was significantly more likely to reduce their quality of life than delivering a girl.

“When we launched our research, our main aim was to study the effect that gender has on PND,” said lead researcher Professor Claude de Tychey.

“But the overwhelming finding of the study was the fact that gender appears to play a significant role in reduced quality of life as well as an increased chance of severe PND.”

The researchers say further studies are needed to determine why there is a link between gender of children, PND and quality of life.