This study aimed to investigate the association between maternal psychological distress and impairment in mother-child relationship in a sample from a Northeast capital city in Brazil with a low Human Development Index, using directed acyclic graphs (DAG). A total of 3,215 women were evaluated for the presence of psychological distress through the Self Reporting Questionnaire instrument and for the mother-child relationship by the first factor of Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire, considered the most appropriate in the literature. Demographic and socioeconomic variables were used to construct a theoretical model and, after this, multivariate logistic regression was performed using variables suggested by Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAG). Psychological distress was present in 22.7% of the women and 12.6% of them presented impaired mother-child relationships. After adjustment, the variable 'maternal mental distress' remained associated with impaired mother-child relationship (RR=3.03), and among the explanatory variables only 'primary school level' (RR=1.48) was associated as a risk factor to this outcome. The results indicated that, in this population, women with psychological distress and lower schooling are more likely to present impaired mother-child relationships.