The Agreement Rate about Unintended Pregnancy and Its Relationship with Postpartum Depression in Parents of Preterm and Term Infants

Maryam Ghorbani,Hamid Alavi-Majd,Mahrokh Dolatian,Jamal Shams

doi:10.4236/ojn.2015.59084

Abstract

Introduction: Postpartum depression (PPD) affects women’s health and self-confidence, and infant’s social, emotional, cognitive and even physical development. Studies show that parents of preterm infants frequently experience symptoms of depression and anxiety. Women with unintended pregnancy are subjected to more risk of depression than women with planned pregnancy. Unintended pregnancy may lead to increased maternal exposure to psychosocial stressors, reduced social support by the spouse, increased levels of depressive symptoms and decreased life satisfaction. Findings: No significant difference was observed between term and preterm infants’ mothers (p = 0.85) in terms of postpartum depression. However, two groups of fathers in terms of depression showed a significant difference (p = 0.045). McNemar’s test showed that parents of term infants (K = 0.322, p = 0.077), and parents of preterm infants (k = 0.17, p = 0.144) agreed with each other on unintended pregnancy. Conclusion: Fathers of preterm infants are at higher risk for mental disorders than fathers of term infants and they need more attention in future studies.

Highlights

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects women’s health and self-confidence, and infant’s social, emotional, cognitive and even physical development
Chi-Square test in two groups of parents showed no significant difference in terms of housing type, income and jobs (Table 1)
Mental disorders such as depression include a wide range of disorders that can have a profound impact on people lives and interactions

Summary

Introduction

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects women’s health and self-confidence, and infant’s social, emotional, cognitive and even physical development. Unintended pregnancy may lead to increased maternal exposure to psychosocial stressors, reduced social support by the spouse, increased levels of depressive symptoms and decreased life satisfaction. Postpartum depression is effective on women’s health and selfconfidence as a mother, and on infant’s social, emotional, cognitive and even physical development. Numerous risk factors associated with postpartum depression have been recognized including mother’s major depressive disorder, depression during pregnancy and family history of depression. Other important factors in some low-income countries include family fragmentation, lack of social support, dissatisfaction with having a baby girl, no breastfeeding, stressful life events, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, infant diseases, infant prematurity and unintended pregnancy [1] [2]. Advances in technology result in more survival of preterm infants, mortality still remains high and imposes more emotional and financial burden to both family and the healthcare system [5]

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