A Study on the Relationship among Prenatal Emotional Status, Preparation for Delivery, Postpartum Social Support and Postpartum Blues

Jung, Myung Hee; Kim, Jeung Im

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was to examine the degree of prenatal emotional status, preparation for delivery, postpartum social support, and postpartum blues and to investigate the relationship of the above variables in postpartum women. METHOD: The subjects were 131 postpartum women. Selection criteria were women who were 2 to 8 weeks post delivery. After Informed consent was obtained, they were asked to fill out a self-administered questionnaire. The instrument was a Postnatal Depression and Anxiety check list. RESULT: The mean age of the subjects was 29.3 years, and 63.4% of subjects delivered their children by vaginal birth. 18.3 percent had felt depressed during their pregnancy. The mean score of the postpartum blues was 19.2. 61.8 percent of the subjects had postpartum blues and 8.4 percent experienced postpartum depression. Monthly income was negatively correlated to postpartum blues (r=-.189, p< .05), but the emotional status during pregnancy had a significant and positive relationship. However, preparation for delivery had no significant correlation with postpartum blues. While husband support and social support had a tendency to have a negative correlation. CONCLUSION: Further research is needed to identify the factors that affect the emotional status during pregnancy with various scales. Also, intervention programs to increase emotional support for pregnancy and husband support are needed.