Postpartum depression in puerperal women at the Hospital General Materno Infantil San Pablo

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of postpartum depression in women attended at the San Pablo Maternal and Child General Hospital between June and August 2018, describe the sociodemographic characteristics of patients and identify diseaserelated factors. Materials and methods: Observational, descriptive crosssectional prospective study performed on 140 women who had a newlyborn between June and August 2018 at the San Pablo Maternal and Child General Hospital, public hospital from Asunción, Paraguay, dependency of the Public Health and Social Welfare Secretary. The diagnosis of postpartum depression was made by applying the Edinburgh postpartum depression scale. It measures age, ethnicity, previous illnesses, prenatal complications, pregnancy planning, toxicological habits, living with the newborns father or with a family member, relationship with newborns father, personal and family history of depression, support family, parity, origin, area, birth route, marital status, schooling, number of pregnancies, history of parental separation in childhood and newborns hospitalization. Descriptive statistics and univariate analysis were performed in order to determine diseaserelated factors. Results: Among the 140 women studied, 47 women had an Edinburgh scale score greater than or equal to 10, therefore, a prevalence of 34% of postpartum depression was found among respondents. Among women with positive score, 15% (7) reported suicidal ideation in the previous week. The univariate analysis showed that the personal history of previous depression (p <0.05; OR: 3.17), newborns hospitalization (p <0.05; OR: 2.34), domestic violence (p <0.05; 0R: 6.15), prior and postpartum stress due to various circumstances (p <0.05; OR: 3.01) and live outside the city (p <0.05; OR: 5.37) are significantly related to the development of postpartum depression. Conclusion: the prevalence of depressive traits was high in the study population, pregnant women with a history of prior depression have a high risk of developing the disease and will need additional evaluations and the establishment of preventive treatment. In adittion, there are diseaserelated factors identified in the development of postpartum depression such as newborns hospitalization, being a victim of domestic violence, prior and postpartum stress, and living outside the city.