Screening of Postpartum Depression among postnatal mother at a selected Tertiary Care Hospital, Chengalpattu district, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

Background of the study: Postpartum depression a form of severe depression after delivery that may be interferes with
day-to-day activities and it also requires treatment. The occurrence of postpartum depression may be a few days, weeks
or even months after childbirth. A woman with postpartum depression may have feeling of low level of mood, anxiety,
irritability to severe degree.it could also associated with the antenatal depression, young maternal age, hyperemesis,
marital status, and previous affective disorders. Postpartum depression having the most common complications of
childbearing and is usually associated with impairments in mother–infant interactions that can lead to severe consequences
for the infant such as illness, poor growth and development. These mothers’ infants had more commonly symptoms and
illnesses, especially infantile colic, and they were less likely to be breastfed. Similarly, among depressed mothers low level
of support from spouse and significant others and physical family violence were more common, likewise poor basic and
professional education, poor economic and housing situation can also cause postpartum depression, As it is alarming the
researchers conducted a study on screening of postpartum depression among postnatal mothers.
Methods and Materials: Quantitative research approach, descriptive research design was carried out. The sample of
56 postnatal mothers were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The study was conducted at tertiary care
hospital, Kelambakkam, Chengalpet district. Phone number of postnatal mother who delivered from 2-6 weeks after delivery was obtained earlier from MRD. Telephonic interview was carried out to collect the data by using modified
Edinburg postnatal depression scale. Data was analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: This study showed that 21.4% of postnatal mothers having postpartum depression whereas, 78.6% were not
depressive. The findings implies that P value is more than 0.05 so there is no significant association between prevalence
of postpartum depression with demographic and obstetrical variables.