Depressive symptomatology during pregnancy: Evidence for an association with decreased fetal growth in pregnancies of lower social class women

The relationship between depressive symptom scores on the Center for Epidem iological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; L. S. Radloff, 1977) at each tri mester of pregnancy and a decrement in either fetal growth or gestational d uration was evaluated among 666 pregnant women. There was no association ov erall, but among 222 women from lower occupational status households, each unit increase on the CES-D at 28 weeks gestation was associated with a redu ction of 9.1 g (95% confidence interval [CI] = -16.0, -2.3) in gestational- age-adjusted birth weight. When missing data were multiply imputed, the est imate was -4.6 g (95% CI = -10.7, 1.5). CES-D score was unrelated to fetal growth or gestational duration in analyses among other potentially high-ris k subgroups: smokers, women with a history of adverse outcome, and women wi th social vulnerabilities. These results raise the possibility that among l ower status women, depressive mood may be associated with restricted fetal growth.