Antenatal Depression and Associated Risk Factors Among Pregnant Women Attending Tertiary Care Hospital, Sikkim

Abstract

Introduction: Pregnant women attending Antenatal Care (ANC) frequently experience depression. This remains a working problem for the expecting mothers and negatively influences the health of both the mother and the foetus. In this background, the current study is aimed at analysing the prevalence of antenatal depression and the risk factors associated with it, among pregnant women.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 289 women, who regularly visited OPD of the tertiary care hospital in Sikkim. The data was collected from the respondents who were selected through purposive sampling technique. Self-structured demographic profile and obstetric profile along with Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and self-structure associated risk factors tool was used to collect the data.

Results: The study outcomes revealed the prevalence of antenatal depression to be 32.2%. Further, a significant association was found among a few factors such as monthly income, family supportive system, occupation with that of antenatal depression among pregnant women and the association of antenatal depression with any complications during previous pregnancy and stressful life events with the p value of <0.005 level of significance.

Conclusion: Since antenatal depression was found to be associated with occupation, monthly income, Family support system, complication during previous pregnancy and stressful life events, there is a need to pay attention to depression aspect in maternal health. So, expecting mothers should be screened at regular intervals for depression, as a part of their routine ANCs.