[Prevalence of maternal sadness and its associated factors]

Frequently occur emotional changes during pregnancy and postpartum. These changes can produce feelings of sadness, anxiety, or fear. In most women, these feelings called "maternity blues" or "baby blues" disappear quickly, if they do not disappear or worsen, they are catalogued as postpartum depression.

To determine the prevalence of maternity blues and the associated factors.

In a cross-sectional study, women at immediate postpartum were recruited. It was applied face-to face the Edinburgh test for determining maternity blues. Other registered data were: maternal age, education level, parity, death sons, history of depressive episodes, sleeping disorders, and if the pregnancy was planned or unplanned. The statistical analysis included arithmetic mean, percentages, Chi2, Student t test; and logistic regression analysis for determining the associated factors with the maternity blues. An alpha value was set at 0.05.

Overall 1,134 women, 21 of them (1.8%) were diagnosed as maternity blues. The significant factors associated with maternity blues were: the history of death sons, p < 0.002; depressive episodes, p < 0.001; and sleeping disorders, p < 0.003.

The frequency of maternity blues is low in our population. The associated factors with this disease should be identified during antenatal care in order to offer special care to these women, in order to avoid the complications associated with this entity.