Hidden sufferers: Anxiety and Depression among Breast feeding mothers

Abstract

Introduction: Breast feeding is an emotional journey to mother. There is lot of physiological changes which occur during this time. . Postpartum depression can start soon after childbirth or as a contin-uation of antenatal depression and needs to be treated Aims: To assess the prevalence of anxiety and de-pression among breast feeding mothers and various factors associated with anxiety and depression. Settings and Design: Cross sectional study was carried out at Nandagudi Primary Health Centre, MVJ Medical College and Research Hospital field practice area, in rural Bangalore for three months duration from November 2017 to January 2018. Methods and Material: To assess the anxiety, Zung Anxiety scale and to assess depression Edinburgh depression scale (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression scale) were used. Statis-tical analysis used: descriptive statistics like frequencies and percentages and to check difference Independ-ent t test and ANOVA was used. Results: Among 200 breast feeding mothers, around 147(74.5%) belonged to age group of 21-25 years, around 160(80%) were hindu by religion and rest were muslims. Around 90(45%) belonged to nuclear family, 75(37.5%) belonged to joint family and 35(17.5%) belonged to three generation family. Among 200 study participants, 37.5% (75) were having anxiety which was assessed us-ing Zung Anxiety scale. Among 200 study participants, 8% (16) had depression which was assessed using Edinburgh Depression Scale. Conclusions: The prevalence of anxiety and depression from the present study has given the picture of hidden suffers who are neglected because the symptoms coinciding with the normal physiological behaviour. Key-words: Depression, Anxiety, Breast feeding mothers