Mom's Depression and Baby's Language

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/08/does-moms-depression-affect-babys-language/

Language is basically an inborn trait. Our brains are wired to understand language from birth. At 6 months old babies can differentiate between sounds in different languages that sound the same to someone who only speaks one language. They can also differentiate between languages based on mouth shapes and rhythms of what is being said. However, at 10 months old infants lose this ability, which indicates that there is a critical period for language. They become better at their native language and don't need to be sensitive to non-native languages. This study investigated the critical period of language in infants and the relation to mother's depression and use of antidepressants, specifically serotonin reuptake inhibitors. There is a large percentage of women who experience depression while pregnant and some take antidepressants during this time period.

A study was done to see if there is a connection between depression, anti-depressants, and baby's language perception at 6 months and 10 months. One group was made up of women who were depressed but didn't use antidepressants. The second group was women who were both depressed and used antidepressants. The control group was women who were neither depressed nor on medication. The researchers tested the babies at 6 months and 10 months to see if they could tell the difference between letters in different languages. The control babies passed at 6 months and failed at 10 months. The depressed but not on medication group failed at 6 months and passed at 10 months which means their language critical period was delayed. The depressed and medicated group failed both times.

The article offers a few possibilities to explain why this happened. Maybe the chemicals in the medication affected the fetus' brain development, but it's interesting that they didnt have any other symptoms. It doesn't appear to have long term affects on the babies, however I would be nervous to take medicine that alters my brain chemistry while I was pregnant.