Prospective study of maternal depressive symptomatology among Japanese women

Prevalence of postpartum depressive symptoms during the first 6 months postpartum: Association with maternal age and parity

“…Our findings support the evidence that the earlier months postpartum, especially the first month, shows a higher risk for PPD (Ishikawa et al, 2011;Suzumiya et al, 2004). This indicates the best time for screening PPD for Japanese mothers is the first month postpartum.…”

“…Ishikawa et al (2011) examined 387 postpartum Japanese women (primiparas and multiparas) from pregnancy to 1 month postpartum and found that the prevalence of PPD was higher in the first month postpartum (16.4-16.9%) than during pregnancy (11.8-14.3%). Suzumiya et al (2004) studied 3370 postpartum Japanese women (primiparas and multiparas) over 4 months postpartum and also found that the prevalence of PPD was higher at 1 month postpartum (19.2%) than at other times (9.0-13.5%).…”

The Japanese version of the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire: Examination of the reliability, validity, and scale structure

“…The percentage of cesarean sections among participants (11.0%) was lower than the 2011 average rate (19.2%) in Japan [30], as was the rate of depression (7.8% vs. 16-20%, respectively) [31,32]; this is most likely because the facilities that participated in our study treat low-risk deliveries only. Despite these slight differences, we believe that our study population represents the actual situation of bonding in Japanese mothers who deliver nearterm, healthy babies since the age range of the participants covered nearly the full fertility period and because the Japanese are a single race and culture with similar child-raising practices throughout the country.…”

Factor Structure of the Japanese Version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale in the Postpartum Period

“…The prevalence of PPD is estimated at approximately 13% from meta-analysis [1], [2]. Our study shows 10.4% of women in Japan experienced depressive symptomatology assessed by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) [3]. PPD is a major mental health problem in women with children [4].…”