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