Pregnancy troubles, before and after.

Greater numbers of women are bearing healthy infants following premature labor and other severe physical complications of pregnancy Many pediatricians believe that whatever worries a new mother develops during such an ordeal will evaporate in the warmth of her new baby's smile.

However, a study described in the March PEDIATRICS suggests that women who endure troubled pregnancies face an increased likelihood of getting depressed shortly after giving birth and of becoming overprotective of their children in response to nagging fears that the youngsters remain prone to all sorts of health problems.

Joanne Burger, a pediatrician at Yale University School of Medicine, and her co-workers interviewed 1,095 mothers of children age 4 to 8. Each participant reported any pregnancy complications and periods of two or more continuous weeks of

within three months after delivery Mothers also offered perceptions of their currently healthy children's physical vulnerability, such as how often they kept their child indoors because of health reasons or thought of calling a physician for their child.

About 17 percent of mothers with serious pregnancy complications viewed their children as highly vulnerable, compared with 9 percent of women without problem pregnancies. And 27 percent of the former group reported depression following delivery compared with 11 percent of those who had not experienced pregnancy complications, Burger's group reports.