A comparative study of prevalence of postnatal depression among subjects with normal and cesarean deliveries

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is a type of clinical depression which can affect woman after childbirth. PPD is very common among women and is a major public health problem. It is estimated that overall 10 to 15% women experience PND while it ranges from 3.5 to 63.3% in Asian countries. But it is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions due to lack of adequate number of studies on the subject. Hence the current study was conducted with an objective of assessing the prevalence of postnatal depression among subjects with normal and cesarean deliveries and to compare the socio-demographic profile between normal and cesarean deliveries. Materials and methods: The study was a cross sectional study, conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Apollo institute of medical sciences and research (AIMSR), Chittor. The data collection for the study was done between January 2015 to November 2015. The study population included people who were undergoing normal and cesarean deliveries. Post natal depression was assessed by EPDS score. Results: The highest proportion of patients belonged to 21-25 years and 26-30 years age groups in both the study groups Normal delivery and Caesarean delivery, the association of age groups between the study groups was statistically significant (P value<0.001). The maximum proportion of patients were housewives in both the study groups. The rural area patients were more in normal and caesarean deliveries as 44% and 39% respectively, the locality showed statistically significant association with the study groups (P value<0.05). All the individual EPDS scores mean values were high in cesarean group when compared to normal delivery group. The mean Total EPDS score mean in normal delivery patients was 8.85 and in cesarean delivery patients 10.85 with t value=-4.766. The proportion of patients with postnatal depression prevalence was high (30%) in cesarean group where as it was only 15% in normal delivery group. The t value was 6.452. Conclusions: Prevalence of postnatal depression was comparably high in caesarean sections compared to normal deliveries with clear statistics about the same, EPDS scores also reflected the higher risk of depression in caesarean section when compare with normal deliveries knocking the alarm to concentrate on the patients more with caesarean sections by providing good counselling, better medication and positive environment in each stage during and after pregnancy from both the patient's family side and medical staff side.