Abstract
Background: Over 30 million people living in Africa suffer from depression which also contributes to global burden of diseases with a steady rise in prevalence, affecting all groups, including pregnant women. Factors which account for the psychological effects of pregnancy on mothers include; maternal age, planned pregnancy, previous experiences, spouse support, and partner violence. These risk factors may lead to antenatal depression which endangers the mother and the pregnancy. To safeguard mothers from depression during pregnancy, these factors need to be determined.
 Objective: To determine the prevalence, risk factors and predictors of antenatal depression.
 Methods: Pregnant women attending antenatal care, who met the study inclusion criteria were interviewed and screened for depression using the risk factor and socio-demographic questionnaire and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Data obtained was fed into the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 and cross-tabulation of the relevant variables obtained using chi-squared and t-test. P values <0.05 were statistically significant.
 Results: Of 500 respondents, 158 (31.6%) had depression. Risk factors of cohabiting with spouse, lack of financial support from spouse, fight with spouse, threat to life, history of still birth and child health challenges were determined, four of which turned out to be predictors of antenatal depression (AD).
 Conclusion: The high prevalence of 31.6% of antenatal depression calls for a review of obstetrics practice to include screening and diagnosis for antenatal depression.
 Keywords: Antenatal depression, socio-demographic factors, EPDS, Obstetrics risk factors, social support, predictors.
Highlights
Depression is one of the mood disorders occurring either as unipolar or bi-polar
Study setting and population: The study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology (O&G) of the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital in Port Harcourt, Nigeria
The study was a cross sectional questionnaire one conducted from 1st January, 2020 to 1st February, 2020 and included all pregnant women who registered for antenatal care and follow-up review, who were in good mental and physical health and who had a minimum of primary education
Summary
Depression is one of the mood disorders occurring either as unipolar or bi-polar It mainly presents with decreased or loss of interest or pleasure in self and most activities. Depression is one of the top five contributors to global disease burden with a global steady rise in prevalence [3] This rise affects virtually all groups including pregnant women. Over 30 million people living in Africa suffer from depression which contributes to global burden of diseases with a steady rise in prevalence, affecting all groups, including pregnant women. Factors which account for the psychological effects of pregnancy on mothers include; maternal age, planned pregnancy, previous experiences, spouse support, and partner violence These risk factors may lead to antenatal depression which endangers the mother and the pregnancy.
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