Screening for depression among pregnant and postpartum women

The purpose of this study was to examine the screening of depression among pregnant and postpartum participants in a community-based program. This cross-sectional study used archival data from 98 women participating in a community-based visiting nurse program in a midwestern U.S. city. Depression screening was accomplished using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D) and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale (EPDS); both instruments ask respondents to answer questions regarding their mood during the past week. The CES-D identified more pregnant and postpartum women as depressed than did the EPDS. A standard regression analysis using previous pregnancies, history of depression, married versus nonmarried, presence of support, and breast-feeding as predictor variables did not produce statistically significant findings for predicting depression among the pregnant and postpartum women in this study. This finding underscores the value of brief depression screening instruments for nurses working with pregnant and postpartum women.