Association Between Pain During Pregnancy and Postpartum Depressive Symptoms in Adolescent and Adult Women

Postpartum depressive symptoms may be more prevalent and/or severe in vulnerable populations.

Postpartum depression represents a serious mental health problem associated with maternal suffering. Despite the relevance and clinical implications of investigating pain during pregnancy and the association with postpartum depression, there is limited research on this topic.

We evaluated the association between pain during pregnancy and postpartum depression symptoms in adolescent and adult women.

This study included 86 pregnant women (42 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years and 44 adults aged 23 to 28 years) from Trairi region, Northeastern Brazil. The evaluation of pain intensity and postpartum depression symptoms was conducted using the validated instruments of the Pelvic Pain Assessment Form and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), respectively. Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests compared depressive symptoms in relation to pain status.

Overall, pregnant women reporting moderate to intense pain presented more depressive symptoms, with emphasis to "deep pain with intercourse" (p = .09), "burning vaginal pain after sex" (p = .01), "pelvic pain lasting hours or days after intercourse" (p = .06), and "pain with urination" (p = .09). When stratified by age group, significant associations were found only for the adolescents.

Our results suggest that women reporting pain in different daily situations have higher EPDS scores.

Pain during pregnancy is associated with postpartum depression symptoms, mainly among adolescents. Adequate screening and pain management during pregnancy may improve women's quality of life.