Giving birth to a boy can lead to higher levels of severe postnatal depression (PND) than having a girl, according to a study.

Claude de Tychey, of the French university Nancy 2, studied 181 women who had given birth and found that just under a third of them suffered from PND.

Nine per cent of the women in the study had severe PND and just over three quarters of those had given birth to boys.

“Postnatal depression is very common and poses a major public health problem, especially if it is not diagnosed and treated,” Professor de Tychey said. “When we launched our research, our main aim was to study the effect that gender has on PND. But the overwhelming finding of the study was the fact that gender appears to play a significant role in reduced quality of life as well as an increased chance of severe PND.”

The researchers measured quality of life with a questionnaire that asked women to assign a score of up to 100 to eight aspects of their health – physical functioning, physical role, bodily pain, mental health, emotional role, social functioning, vitality and general health.

The team reported in the Journal of Clinical Nursing that 70 per cent of women who had given birth to a boy reported lower quality of life, regardless of whether they suffered from PND.

Among women with PND, the quality-of-life scores were higher for women who had girls – 567 if the PND was mild and 541 if it was severe. Women who had delivered boys scored 539 if the PND was mild and 498 if it was severe.

“Postnatal depression can have a considerable impact on women as it can affect both their physical and mental health,” Professor de Tychey said.

The study was carried out in a French community where women did not face cultural pressures over the sex of their baby.

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