Biological, Psychosocial and Maternal-Neonatal Factors as Predictors of Postpartum Depression among Breastfeeding Mothers Attending Chukwuemeka OdumegwuOjukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka
Abstract
Postpartum depression is a serious but neglected mental health issue that affects women after childbirth, with characterized persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness or emptiness, anxiety, worry, fear, mood swings, feeling disconnected from baby and irritability. It affects mother and child bonding, brings about suicidal thoughts, and thoughts of harming baby. Postpartum symptoms can last from a few weeks to several months or longer.Severity can vary from mild to severe. This can be caused by various underlying predictors like biological, psychosocial and maternal-neonatal factors. Therefore, this study was carried out to find out if biological, psychosocial and maternal-neonatal factors are predictors of postpartum depression among breastfeeding mothers of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital, Awka, Anambra State. The purpose of the study was specifically to find out if these factors can predict postpartum depression. Six null hypotheses guided the study. The research design adopted for this study was a correlational research design because it is used to identify patterns and predict outcomes. The population of the study was 440 breastfeeding mothers attending COOUTH, Awka, also the sample size was 209 breastfeeding mothers of COOUTH, Awka, Anambra State. However, only 173 copies of the questionnaires were correctly filled and used for the study. Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire titled Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale and a structured questionnaire titled Predictors of postpartum depression. This instrument was also validated by three experts all from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The internal constituency was established using Kudder Richardson 0.73, 0.67, 0.67, 0.69,0.77, 0.68 and 0.75 respectively. The research questions were analyzed using simple logistics regression. Null hypotheses were analyzed using regression at 0.05 level of significance. Findings based on the research questions revealed that biological, psychosocial and maternal-neonatal factors are a significantly high predictors of postpartum depression. The findings of the hypotheses tested revealed that there was a positive significant difference in the logistics regression with the predictors, therefore the null hypothesis was rejected. Based on the findings it was recommended that there should be personalized mental health support, adequate sleep management strategies, practice of stress reduction technique, establish trauma informed care training and building of community initiatives.
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