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Purpose: Common mental disorders (non-psychotic mental health conditions which impact on day-to-day functioning) are increasingly common in childbearing women and may impact significantly on both maternal and neonatal outcomes. Our study examines the associations between common mental disorders and perinatal outcomes.

Methods: We used routinely collected perinatal data (2009–2016) for this population-based retrospective cohort study (n = 597,522 singleton births). We undertook multiple logistic regression adjusting for key maternal medical conditions and sociodemographic factors to determine associations between maternal common mental disorders and adverse perinatal outcomes with confidence intervals set at 95%.

Results: Women with common mental disorders were more likely to have an induction of labour and caesarean birth, have a postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), and be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) than women without common mental disorders. Neonates of women with common mental disorders were more likely to have an Apgar score at five minutes of less than seven (a measure of neonatal wellbeing at birth), be born preterm and low birthweight, be admitted to the Special Care Nursery or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (SCN/NICU) and have a congenital anomaly than neonates of women without common mental disorders.

Conclusion: Common mental disorders during the perinatal period were associated with poorer perinatal outcomes for mothers and their neonates. Strategies that enable early recognition and response to maternal common mental disorders should be developed to mitigate the consequential impact on maternal and infant wellbeing.