Severe Maternal Morbidity and Postpartum Depressive Symptomatology: A Prospective Double Cohort Comparison Study

Abstract

The adverse consequences to mothers of postpartum depression are well-documented, and risk factors are of interest. There is limited evidence on postpartum depression among women with severe maternal morbidity, defined as potentially life-threatening conditions during pregnancy, childbirth, or soon after termination of pregnancy. We compared postpartum depressive symptoms of postpartum women aged 18 and older who delivered in two tertiary referral hospitals in 2014 in Kelantan, Malaysia, and had (n = 145) or had not (n = 187) suffered severe maternal morbidity. A prospective double cohort study design was applied. Postpartum depressive symptoms were assessed at 1 and 6 months postpartum using the Malay version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. There was no significant difference in the mean Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score changes (p = .803) between the two groups of women, after adjusting for age, social support, physical health, occupation, and education. Factors other than severe medical complications should be pursued as predictors of postpartum depressive symptomatology. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mental Health and Quality of Life of Women One Year after Maternal Near-Miss in Low and Middle-Income Countries: The Case of Zanzibar, Tanzania

“…We found that severe maternal complications have a little effect on mental health and quality of life in our population irrespective whether they lost their baby or not. This finding is in line with previous studies done in Malaysia [10] and England [5] which equally did not find significant differences when screening for depression between women with and without severe maternal complications. However, there are other studies that found a statistically significant difference between the two groups [7,9], while another study [8] found that the association between depression and severe maternal morbidity was present only for women who lost their baby.…”

“…For instance, most studies (e.g., conducted in Morocco [7], Benin [8], and Burkina Faso [9]) found that women with MNM had an increased risk of developing depression in the post-partum year, especially if they had lost their baby. On the contrary, similar studies in Malaysia [10] and England [5] found no significant difference regarding the risk of depression among women with and without MNM. Similarly, there is contradicting evidence regarding the association between hospital admission due to pregnancy complications and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [5,6,11].…”

“…The impact is usually multidimensional, affecting physical functioning, mental health, and socio-economical aspects [3,4]. So far, some studies researched long-term mental health consequences in women with MNM, such as depression and quality of life (QoL), but results are inconclusive [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. For instance, most studies (e.g., conducted in Morocco [7], Benin [8], and Burkina Faso [9]) found that women with MNM had an increased risk of developing depression in the post-partum year, especially if they had lost their baby.…”

Risk of Depressive Symptoms Associated with Morbidity in Postpartum Women in Rural Bangladesh

“…In Asia, pregnancy complications, negative childbirth experiences, and severe morbidity at the time of childbirth have been associated with subsequent postpartum depressive symptomatology (Gausia et al, 2012; Giri et al, 2015; Lyengar, Yadav, & Sen, 2012; Shivalli & Gururaj, 2015). Some studies, however, have not found a significant relation between severe medical complications during or immediately after pregnancy with postpartum depressive symptoms, perhaps because the occurrence of severe morbidity is quite rare (Norhayati, Nik Hazlina, Aniza, & Asrenee, 2016). …”

A depressão pós-parto em mulheres que sobreviveram à morbidade materna grave

“…Na Argentina, Mathisen et al 20 constataram 37,2% dessa associação entre as mulheres puérperas. Outro dado importante sobre essa associação observado por Norhayati et al 10 foi a presença de fatores de risco relacionados a problemas de saúde, complicações obstétricas e baixo apoio social 21 .…”