Perinatal mood disorders such as postpartum depression and postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder are an area of growing concern. There have been few studies regarding ways to identify women at risk of developing these disorders in the antepartum period. During the antepartum period, women attend prenatal appointments with their provider to assess the health of their pregnancy. This period is ideal to administer emotional health questionnaires to identify if patients may be at risk of developing postpartum mood disorders. The aim of this study was to identify if there are differences on antepartum emotional health questionnaire scores between women who have postpartum mood disorders, and those who do not. The data come from 19 women undergoing scheduled cesarean deliveries at Boston Medical Center. The questionnaires collected information about stress, depression, anxiety, and symptoms of postpartum depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. We compared the scores of the women who had postpartum depression and postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder to the women who did not, to examine if the scores in the antepartum period correlated with postpartum mood disorders. We did not find any differences between the postpartum depression group, but did find a difference on one questionnaire between the postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder group. Within our cohort, we found similar incidences of postpartum depression, postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder, and self-harm/suicidal ideations compared to national incidences. Future studies should include more participants and a more heterogenous cohort as it pertains to cesarean delivery type, indication for cesarean delivery, intrapartum events, and histories of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other mood disorders. Although we only found a difference on one questionnaire for one of the postpartum mood disorders, future studies should prioritize the antepartum period as a time to identify and address concerns of postpartum mood disorders.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/48365 |
| Date | 08 March 2024 |
| Creators | Pfau, Rachel |
| Contributors | Markenson, Glenn, Bragdon, Beth |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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