Study links anxiety to reflux

WOMEN with a mental health condition, such as anxiety, are nearly five times more likely to have a baby diagnosed with reflux, an Australian study published last week in BMC Pediatrics reported.

The researchers propose a new model in looking at the issue of reflux that includes the immature baby (preterm/early term), maternal mental health, particularly anxiety, and disturbance of the microbiome may be due to the baby being delivered by caesarean section or babies needing antibiotics. Anxiety in the mother may also impact on her microbiome which may affect the baby’s microbiome.

Lead author and professor of midwifery Hannah Dahlen stressed it was not about blaming mothers or adding to their anxiety, but rather a call for health professionals to identify women more at risk of having a baby with reflux and put in extra services to support them.

“We don’t want to scare women. It should not be about blaming mums, but valuing them,” Ms Dahlen said. “It takes a tribe to raise a baby and we have lost that tribe, raising children in isolation is one of the disadvantages of modern society. Anxiety appears to have risen in the last decade and we need to find ways to help women moderate this.”

Professor Dahlen called for more social support systems to be put in place with less of a focus on a medical approach.

For more, visit kidspot.com.au.