RESUMO
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a serious health care issue that affects a substantial share of women giving birth. PPD is considered a severe stress response that is likely associated with impaired HPA-axis activity. However, genetic findings regarding HPA-axis effects on PPD are scarce and inconsistent. Inconsistencies may be due to the neglect of environmental (stressful) events such as perinatal trauma or averse subjective birth experiences associated with PPD. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate whether the NR3C1 gene and subjective birth experience interact on PPD and postpartum bonding to the child. N = 277 mothers provided gene samples and self-report data on PPD and postpartum bonding. We genotyped 11 polymorphisms on the NR3C1 gene (including the prominent BCL1) and conducted haplotype analyses. A negative subjective birth experience was associated with both PPD and maternal postpartum bonding. Our results further show a significant main effect of NR3C1 haplotype (F1, 275 = 6.42, p = .012, η2 =.023) and a haplotype x birth experience interaction (F1, 274 = 4.57, p = .033, η2 =.016) on PPD. We did not find any NR3C1 haplotype effects on bonding. Our results support the assumption that the glucocorticoid receptor coding NR3C1 gene is involved in the development of PPD. These gene effects become particularly important in presence of a negative environmental event such as the subjective birth experience. This finding allows more targeted preventions in terms of being particularly sensitive to potentially harming environmental influences that may present even stronger risk factors for genetically vulnerable women.