Post-partum depression and its impact on the acoustic qualities of mother-baby interaction.

Abstract

In the mother-baby interaction, the mother's voice is the first organizer in the child's development, it stimulates and introduces it into the language structure. Asynchronous responses of the mother can occur in early interaction, if she presents postpartum depression (PPD). This study aimed to analyze the incidence of maternal postpartum depression (PPD) upon the acoustic qualities of preverbal vocalizations in the early mother-baby interaction. In addition, describe and analyze preverbal acoustic qualities based on maternal PPD. 

28 mother-baby dyads were studied, who attended the University Hospital of Maternity and Neonatology for control during September 2017 to June 2018. The instruments used were: PRAAT (Boersma & Weenink, 2016), Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (Cox, Holden, & Sagovsky, 1987), and semi-structured perinatal psychological interview (Oiberman & Galìndez, 2005). The dyads were divided into two equal groups according to evidence of maternal DPP. 

The children of healthy mothers (b-Ms/ppd) produce more vocalizations than the group of mothers with ppd symptoms (b-Mc/ppd): b-Ms/ppd = 447 vocalizations against b-Mc/ppd = 400 vocalizations. Male b-Mc/ppd tend to produce fewer vocalizations per unit of time than b-Ms/ppd; in contrast, female b-Ms/ppd perform fewer vocalizations than b-Mc/ppd babies. The overall average duration of the emissions was 8.9 seconds for b-Ms/ppd and 8.1 seconds for b-Mc/ppd. In turn, higher frequency values ​​were found in b-Ms/ppd, as well as intensities, where b-Mc/ppd babies have lower values, at least 10 dB. In the use of melodic curves, more flat and complex curves were found in both groups.

The results suggest that there is an influence on the preverbal acoustic qualities of babies depending on the maternal PPD. These findings could also presuppose alterations in the child's linguistic acquisition and could promote new research in this field.