Women’s mental illness in pregnancy: contact with secondary mental health services and links with offspring health and education outcomes

“We are aiming to contribute useful knowledge for pregnant people affected by mental illness and their families, guided and shaped by parents who had similar lived experiences”
— Dr Yasmin Ahmadzadeh, Research Fellow

This study is being led by Yasmin Ahmadzadeh (King’s College London) and was funded by ADR UK. The study started in 2026 and aims to finish in 2027.

‍This project was reviewed and approved through ECHILD's data access process. Learn how ECHILD data is kept safe.‍

  • We want to investigate the effect of pregnancy mental illness on offspring health and education outcomes.

  • 1 in 4 women in the UK are reported to experience perinatal mental illness. Further, women face fears and stigma regarding offspring exposure to their mental illness during pregnancy, despite a lack of robust causal evidence in this area. My research provides more causal evidence through utilising large population samples and linked sibling data.

  • I will curate a linked longitudinal national dataset to explore mothers’ perinatal mental health, service use, and links with offspring developmental outcomes. Comparing between siblings born to the same mother, I aim to provide more causal evidence of the relationship between maternal mental health and child outcomes.

Find out more

  • Why does this matter?

    Mental illness during pregnancy is common, and many fear its potentially negative impacts on baby outcomes. Yet causal evidence in this area is limited.

    What do we want to find out?

    What is the relationship between secondary mental health care and child outcomes, such as birth outcomes, health conditions and school attainment.

    What we will do?

    I link a set of mothers’ records of mental health during pregnancy with the associated child outcomes. I test the associations between the two. I then restrict to sibling pairs to find more causal evidence of the impact of maternal mental health on child outcomes. I am supported by five mothers with lived experience expertise.

  • Background and aims 

    1 in 4 women in the UK are reported to experience perinatal mental illness. The significant health burden is greater for those facing barriers to accessing mental health support. Further, women face fears and stigma regarding offspring exposure to their mental illness during pregnancy, despite a lack of robust causal evidence in this area. My fellowship will address these challenges, using linked administrative data from ECHILD database

    Methods and analysis

    I will curate a linked longitudinal national dataset to explore mothers’ perinatal mental health, service use, and links with offspring developmental outcomes. I will create a pregnancy mental health cohort and test associations between pregnancy mental illness and child outcome variables. By comparing between siblings, I provide more causal evidence of the effect of perinatal mental health on child outcomes. I will work with mothers who have lived experiences of mental illness and service use during pregnancy, to help frame, guide, interpret, and share the results.

    ECHILD data used

    • HES Admitted Patient Care (2010-2022): delivery and birth episodes, contact with secondary mental health care + linked offspring birth (birthweight, gestational age, foetal and neonatal death) and health (cardiovascular, metabolic, respiratory, neurological) records through mother-baby link

    • NPD Key Stages 1-2 (2015-2022): Maths and English pass rates