Male Babies Linked to Postpartum Depression

Giving birth to a boy may increase your risk for postpartum depression, a new study suggests.

French researchers examined 181 new mothers and identified 17 who had severe depression. Of the 17, 13 had delivered male babies.

The researchers also found that 7 out of 10 women who had given birth to a boy reported a lower quality of life compared with the average of women who had given birth to a girl, regardless of whether they had postpartum depression.

The reasons for the link were unclear, although the researchers suggested it could be because the women had a history of bad relationships with the men in their lives, which caused them to have a negative attitude towards their son. Given the small size of the study, however, it could be a meaningless statistical anomaly.

The study appears in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.