Cradling to Right Linked to Depression in New Mothers – Or is it?
Is this mother depressed?
The mainstream media are reporting that the side on which mothers cradle their babies may be linked to maternal depression (Foxnews, The Telegraph). First, there's the background to the story and second I explain why this study has been misrepresented. The Guardian writes:
"New mothers who cradle their infants on the right side of their body may be displaying signs of "extreme stress". The findings build on previous research showing that most mothers prefer to hold their baby to their left, regardless of whether they are left- or right-handed.The study suggests there is a correlation between the minority who hold a baby on the right and a greater likelihood that they are experiencing stress beyond the levels natural in new parents."
It is accurate that there is a finding from previous research that (non-stressed or depressed) mothers tend to cradle their babies to the left. Further, it has been found previously that depressed mothers have a tendency to cradle their babies to the right.
Flat contradiction of previous work
Unlike the write-up in The Guardian (and elsewhere) it's not mentioned that this study (published online in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry) does flatly contradict previous work in one important respect. As the authors themselves point out, previous research found that depressed mothers hold their babies on the right, in opposition to this, the current study found depressed (but not stressed) mothers showed a bias towards the left - which is the way all mothers show a preference for holding their babies.
This is somewhat covered up by focussing on the fact that 'stressed' and depressed mothers tend to hold their babies to the right.
Not mentioning the contradiction significantly reduces the impressive media spin on the story. This is that doctors may be able to tell if mothers are depressed from the side on which they hold their baby. Even if this were a useful marker, the fact that the studies are contradictory is evidence that further work needs to be done.
The second point to note about this study is that it is based on a small number of participants (79). Since these were then split into four categories - and most mothers were not depressed - that doesn't leave many in some of the categories. In fact as few as 6 in the 'only depressed' category. That is low.
While this study is really interesting, there's obviously some way to go yet - something that is fully acknowledged by the authors of the study but totally glossed over in the mainstream media reports.
Read the study's abstract
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One reason why I tend to avoid mainstream news (and gravitate toward blogs written by people with professional background instead) is that the state of reporting is so bad. In the physical sciences, it's often weak to bad; it seems like, in the social sciences, it's downright terrible. Conclusions are drawn and important factors are completely ignored by the writers in these areas, just to come up with the most scandalous headline possible and sell the most papers.
Incidentally, Jeremy, I don't know if it's just me, but it seems like I get timeout errors from the site almost every time I try to post here. I've taken to copying all my comments to the clipboard before I try to post just in case.
Will, thanks for the heads-up about the timeout errors. I guess the problem is with blogger.com as that's the server that processes the comments. I might be moving to a different blogging platform at some point, but until then I don't think I can do anything about it. Seems best to write comments in another program first.
Although I am not a mother, I almost always hold a baby in my right hand/arm. Why? Simple, I am terrified of dropping the thing and feel much safer having my strongest and dominant hand be the one responsible for the kid!