Comparative Study on Perinatal Depression among Normal and High Risk Pregnant Women

Background Mental health is a crucial part of overall wellbeing. It is estimated that 7 to 20 women are suffering from depression during pregnancy. Depression mainly affects the women during perinatal period. If it is not treated properly in early stage of pregnancy it leads to post partum depression and can affect fetal development also. Methods Quantitative approach with non experimental comparative research design was adopted to study the perinatal depression among normal and high risk pregnant women. The study was conducted in antenatal OPD of IMS and SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Hundred normal pregnant women and 100 high risk pregnant women were selected purposively. The tools used to collect the data were 1. Socio demographic questionnaire, 2. Beck depression Inventory. The data were entered and analysed in SPSS version 20. Result Almost one third from normal 32 and high risk pregnant women 36 had mild mood disturbances. Equal and 5 of women from normal and high risk pregnant women had border line clinical disturbance and equal and 2 of normal and high risk pregnant women had moderate depression. It can be interpreted that almost one third of women had different levels of depression. There was no difference found in the level of depression between normal and high risk pregnant women. Conclusion Depression during pregnancy is the major health problem among reproductive aged women. If it is not treated properly in early stage of pregnancy, it becomes post partum depression and can affect fetal development also. So, health care professional shall be expert in the assessment and screening of antenatal mother about depression during each antenatal visit and take appropriate as required. B. Gomathi | Nibedita Sahoo | Bimal Kumar Biswal | Triptimai Biswal | Shreya Chatarjee "Comparative Study on Perinatal Depression among Normal and High-Risk Pregnant Women" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-6 , October 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd46340.pdf Paper URL : https://www.ijtsrd.com/medicine/nursing/46340/comparative-study-on-perinatal-depression-among-normal-and-highrisk-pregnant-women/b-gomathi