Little is known from developing countries about the effects of maternal
morbidities diagnosed in the postpartum period on children's
development. The study aimed to document the relationships of such
morbidities with care-giving practices by mothers, children's
developmental milestones and their language, mental and psychomotor
development. Maternal morbidities were identified through physical
examination at 6-9 weeks postpartum (n=488). Maternal care-giving
practices and postnatal depression were assessed also at 6-9 weeks
postpartum. Children's milestones of development were measured at six
months, and their mental (MDI) and psychomotor (PDI) development,
language comprehension and expression, and quality of psychosocial
stimulation at home were assessed at 12 months. Several approaches were
used for identifying the relationships among different maternal
morbidities, diagnosed by physicians, with children's development.
After controlling for the potential confounders, maternal anaemia
diagnosed postpartum showed a small but significantly negative effect
on children's language expression while the effects on language
comprehension did not reach the significance level (p=0.085).
Children's development at 12 months was related to psychosocial
stimulation at home, nutritional status, education of parents,
socioeconomic status, and care-giving practices of mothers at six weeks
of age. Only a few mothers experienced each specific morbidity, and
with the exception of anaemia, the sample-size was insufficient to make
a conclusion regarding each specific morbidity. Further research with a
sufficient sample-size of individual morbidities is required to
determine the association of postpartum maternal morbidities with
children's development