Abstrait

Early Detection of Postnatal Depression and Its Associated Factors in Saudi Arabia

Dalal Sami Aldossary, Maha Mohammed Al-Madani and Neama Mohamed Fouad Kamel

Aim: The aim of the study is to estimate the incidence rate of post-natal Depression (PND) and examine its associated factors among studied subjects. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study design has been used to conduct this research. Setting: The study conducted in postnatal wards in two hospitals at eastern region of Saudi Arabia. Subject: A total of 48 mothers were participating in the study 21 mothers delivered at KFHU and 27 mothers from MCH. The study has two stages, the first stage which include all available women within the first two days of their postnatal period and the second stage is the follow up period where all women who agreed to participate at the day 12-20 postpartum through the phone call. Tool: 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) has been used in this study to find out the rate of PND and second questionnaire to assess factors which associated with PND. Results: The result shows that 35.5% of mothers have a positive postnatal depression. Also there were a positive significant correlation between PND and marital conflicts, exposure of difficult life events, gravidity, parity, newborn birth order, unwanted pregnancy and breastfeeding. Conclusion: In this study, postnatal depression was found almost in third of the mothers which give the health professional alarm to give more attention towards this problem and investigate more on it.