The study investigated postpartum emotional distress including depression among 47 Nigerian women who had a caesarean section by comparing them at 6-8 weeks following childbirth with 47 matched controls who had normal vaginal delivery. Analysis of scores on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) showed that women that delivered by caesarean section were significantly different from the controls on the GHQ and BDI scores in the postpartum period. Apart from marital status, other sociodemographic variables did not significantly contribute to psychopathology in this group of women. This observation is in support of the view that caesarean childbirth may predispose Nigerian women to adverse psychological sequelae.

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This was a cross-sectional prospective study of 57 mothers of pre-term infants consecutively recruited from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesa, Nigeria, between April and August 2009. The mothers were screened for psychological morbidity using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Inventory (HADS). More than one-third of these mothers (36.8%), showed high levels of psychological distress on the GHQ30, and 19.3% were cases of depression, whereas 12.3% were cases of anxiety on the HADS. Psychological morbidity and depression were related to both neonatal birth weight and gestational age. There was no association between either maternal age at birth, or parity with maternal depression and psychological morbidity. These results indicate that the detection and effective management of postnatal psychological morbidity in mothers of pre-term infants, should be given priority in the design of maternal and child health services in Nigeria.

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