perinatal stress, anxiety, depression

Perinatal stress, anxiety, and depression impact not only women but also their child(ren). The purpose of this longitudinal study is to explore trends of stress, anxiety, and depressive symptoms from pregnancy to postpartum and understand predictions of stress and anxiety on post-partum depression. One-hundred-fifty-six women at 23-28 weeks gestation (T1), 147 at 32-36 weeks gestation (T2), 129 at over 36 weeks gestation (T3), and 83 at postpartum (T4) completed study surveys. The Perceived Stress Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were used to measure stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. STAI-S at T1 and T2, STAI-T at T1 and T4, and CESD at T2 and T4 had one missing value. The expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm was used to manage missing values.