Premature birth: A parent’s psychiatric diagnosis may increase the risk of preterm delivery.

According to the study published in the online journal PLOS Medicine, babies whose father or mother has a mental illness are more likely to be born prematurely than those whose parents do not have the condition, and the risk is even higher when both parents have the diagnosis.

Premature birth has been linked to adverse health outcomes for newborns.

It has long been recognized that women with psychiatric illness are at increased risk of preterm delivery, but little is known about the risk in children of psychiatrically diagnosed fathers and in children of couples with mental illnesses in both parents.

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The researchers analyzed data on all live births in Sweden to Nordic parents (parents born in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland) between 1997 and 2016.

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The researchers observed an earlier gestational age in the offspring of parents diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses.

About 5.8 percent of babies were born prematurely to parents who didn’t have a diagnosis.

A paternal diagnosis increased the number of births by 6.3 percent, while a mother’s diagnosis increased the number of births by 7.3 percent. Premature birth occurred in 8.3 per cent of cases where both parents were diagnosed, according to the study.

“Premature birth can result in significant lifelong complications for the infant, and in my clinical experience, the mother has traditionally been held responsible for the events,” said Michael Silverman, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at Icahn Mount Sinai and author of the paper.

The researchers also found that the risk was further increased for mothers as well as offspring of fathers who had multiple co-existing psychiatric disorders.

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“This new work shows that psychiatric history of the non-gestational biological parent (father) is also associated with an increased likelihood of obstetric outcomes traditionally attributed only to the mother,” Silverman said.

The researchers noted that children of parents with mental illness are at increased risk of prematurity and that our study shows that both the mother and the father are important.