Screening for Depression among Pregnant Women in Peripheral Care Units in Lomé: Knowledge and Practices of State Midwives and Auxiliary Midwives

Abstract

Introduction: Depression is recognized as a public health issue among pregnant women. The objective of this study was to describe the knowledge and the practices of the State Midwives (SMW) and State Auxiliary Midwives (SAM) in relation to the depression in the pregnant women. Framework and Methodology: Our study was descriptive cross-sectional conducted from May 13, 2019 to July 16, 2019 among the SMWs and the SAMs who intervened in maternity wards of the public Peripheral Care Units (PCU) of Health District No. 5 (HD5) of the Lomé-Commune Health Region (LCHR).Results: The average age of respondents was 35 ± 11.3 years with extremes of 23 and 51 years. Thirty respondents (68.2%) had already worked for at least 5 years or more. Forty-two of the respondents (95.5%) experienced less than 5 characteristic symptoms of the depression. Forty respondents (90.9%) were not aware of the existence of specific screening tools for the depression. Thirty-three respondents (75.0%) had never screened the symptoms of the depression among the pregnant women. Conclusion: On-the-job ongoing mental health training sessions were needed to address the gaps for these claimants.