Public health nurses are well positioned to identify and treat depressed mothers and provide referrals when needed. A small investment in training nurses to identify and treat postpartum depression can be cost-effective in the longer term. These findings have implications for service delivery in public health.
Supportive counselling based on a non-directive counselling method provided by public health nurses is an effective treatment method for postpartum depression. Further research is required to assess the mothers' evaluation of the treatment and appraise methods used for management of postpartum depression in primary health care.
The objectives of this study were (i) to describe the prevalence of postpartum depression (PPD) in two Norwegian municipalities and (ii) to investigate whether mothers' age and parity are related to the development of PPD. A total of 2227 women, 437 from M1 and 1790 from M2 participated in the study. Mothers who had given birth between 1 May, 2005 and 31 December, 2006 completed The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at well baby clinics 6 weeks after delivery. The prevalence of PPD (EPDS >or= 10) was 10.1%. However, there was a significant difference between the municipalities, with a prevalence of 14.4% in M1 and 9% in M2. Primiparous mothers showed a higher prevalence than multiparous mothers did, and the oldest mothers (36 years and over) showed the highest prevalence. PPD is an issue of importance in Norway, as in many other countries. Public health services should be aware of the higher risk of PPD among primiparous mothers and especially among older primiparous mothers. A small difference in the information provided by nurses to the mothers in the two groups at the home visit 2 weeks postpartum may have produced a significant difference in the prevalence of PPD. The findings may have implications for service delivery in public health.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.