Interpretation
There are several plausible behavioral and biologicalpathways through which infant carrying could reduce postpartum
depression symptomology. Behaviorally, infant carrying increases
breastfeeding,19, 30 promotes parent-infant
attachment,9 and reduces infant
crying,31 all of which have been linked to reduced
postpartum depression risk.32-35 Neuroscience studies
show that infant carrying enhances neural reactivity to infant crying in
fathers,36 which relates to our findings because
depressed parents are less likely to have heightened neural responses to
infant distress signals.37, 38 Physiologically, the
physical contact from infant carrying also increases
oxytocin12-14 and decreases
cortisol,15 both of which have been implicated in the
etiology of postpartum depression.16