Assessment of postpartum depression among mothers attending primary health care centers in Hawler city

Abstract

Background and objectives: Postpartum depression is a global, life-threatening disorder which affects particular mothers in their post-natal periods. It's regarded to be one of the major disabling conditions of motherhood. We aimed to study the rate of, as well as assessing a group of psycho-obstetrical risk factors behind postpartum depression. Methods: 98 newly gave-birth mothers were recruited with mean age of 27.07 year between the periods of November 2009 to February 2010. Edinburg Post-natal Depression Scale was adopted by authors for the assessment of postpartum depression. Comparisons on groups of demographic, obstetrical, and psychological data were done between both positive and negative mothers for the disorder. Results: 39.8% of mothers were diagnosed as postpartum depression. For which, no particular demographic factors were significantly predictive for. Depressed mothers were of significant higher mean number of gestation with p value of 0.0472. However, no other obstetrical factors revealed back statistical significant differences. Past history of depressive disorders, whether post-natal or not, was significant predictor for current postpartum depression with p value of 0.02 for history of previous postpartum depression, and p value of 0.042 for non postpartum depressive disorders. Conclusion: Postpartum depression is highly prevalent in our society. History of depressive disorders is a strong predictor for future postpartum disorder. However, there were no clear correlation between postpartum depression and other demographic and obstetrical data apart from the mean number of gestation.