Prevalence of postpartum depression in mothers and fathers and its correlates

To determine the prevalence of postpartum depression and its connections in a group of mothers and their husbands.

Although postpartum depression in mothers during the postnatal period has been extensively studied, the courses of depression from pregnancy to postpartum and risk factors among mothers and fathers together are not known.

A cross-sectional design was used.

This study included 110 couples registered at a family health centre in western Turkey. For the data collection, the Mother Introduction Form, the Father Introduction Form and the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale were used. The data were analysed by Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis, Spearman correlation and logistic regression tests.

The prevalence of postpartum depression was 9·1 and 1·8% for mothers and fathers, respectively. The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale average score for mothers was 4·29 ± 5·33 points and 1·12 ± 2·75 points for fathers. The Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale scores were significantly higher in mothers who said that their relationship with their husbands was moderate or bad, who felt partly sufficient in the baby care, who were in difficulty in the baby care, who felt anxious for their motherhood and who said that they had not received support from anybody for baby care. The logistic analysis found that those feeling anxious about motherhood were at risk 5·6 times more than the others in developing postpartum depression.

Both mothers and fathers should be given consulting services about baby care and how they can manage with postpartum depression during postpartum period.

This study highlights the utility of screening for the risk of postpartum depression during pregnancy and also during the early postpartum period.