Abstract
BackgroundPostpartum depression can compromise caregiving activities, including infant feeding practices, resulting in child malnutrition. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of postpartum depression on infant feeding practices and malnutrition among women in an urban low income settlement in Nairobi-Kenya. We conducted a cross-sectional study based in Kariobangi North Health Centre in Nairobi County. The study sample included 200 mother-infant pairs visiting the Maternal and Child Health clinics for infant immunization at 6–14 weeks postpartum. We assessed postpartum depression using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale. Infant feeding practices were assessed based on World Health Organization infant and young child feeding guidelines. Nutritional status (weight for age) was ascertained using infants’ growth monitoring card (percentiles and z-score). We conducted logistic regression analyses to determine the relative odds of non-exclusive breast feeding and infant underweight among mothers with postpartum depression.ResultsThe prevalence of PPD was 13.0% (95% CI 8.3–17.7%). Taking into account differences in socioeconomic status of depressed and non-depressed mothers, non-depressed mothers had a 6.14 (95% CI 2.45–13.36) times higher odds of practicing exclusive breastfeeding than mothers who were depressed. Mothers with PPD had a 4.40 (95% CI 1.91–11.93) time higher odds of having an underweight infant than mothers without depression.ConclusionsThis study contributes towards filling the knowledge gap regarding the adverse effects of postpartum depression on infant health in sub-Saharan Africa. We recommend more research on PPD using longitudinal designs to establish temporal ordering of these important public health problems and development of community-based interventions to address post-partum depression.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13104-016-2307-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Postpartum depression can compromise caregiving activities, including infant feeding practices, resulting in child malnutrition
For over 75% of the participants, the family income was between Ksh 5000 and 10,000/month
Findings from the exploratory evaluation showed that ~17% of the association between post partum depression (PPD) and infant malnourishment might be explained by non-exclusive breast feeding
Summary
Postpartum depression can compromise caregiving activities, including infant feeding practices, resulting in child malnutrition. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of postpartum depression on infant feeding practices and malnutrition among women in an urban low income settlement in Nairobi-Kenya. Depressed mothers in the early postpartum period may be at a higher risk for negative infant-feeding outcomes including decreased breastfeeding duration and increased breastfeeding difficulties [9, 20, 21, 23, 27]. These findings help posit that Kenyan mothers with PPD would be significantly less likely than mothers without depression to practice exclusive breastfeeding and would be significantly more likely to have infants who are underweight
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