Sleep Quality and Postpartum Depression among Breastfeeding Mothers attending Postnatal Clinic of Selected Teaching Hospitals in Osun State

The birth of a child can be filled with joy. However, the transition into motherhood role can as well be stressful, especially for first-time mothers. Mothers often do not sleep well at night due to the demands of the baby. These results in poor sleep quality at night and increased day-time sleepiness. The aim of this study is to assess the sleep quality and postpartum depression among nursing mothers. This study was done using a cross-sectional study design. The respondents (191) were mothers attending postnatal clinic in WGH and IHU, OAUTHC. The questionnaires were designed using the following scales: Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) was used to assess the sleep quality and sleeping patterns and Edinburgh postpartum depression scale was used to assess for signs and symptoms of postpartum depression. The mean age of the respondents was 32.10 ± 5.812. Majority of the respondents, 38.2% age range was between 26 – 31 years. More than half of the respondents’ current postpartum period and age of baby was between 1 – 6 months (54.5%) while more than 12 months (9.4%). More than half of the respondents, 52.9% sex of the baby was male while 47.1% were females. 84.3% of the respondents were from monogamy family and 15.7% were from polygamy family. About(24.6%) of the respondents had low level of stress, 100 (52.4%) had moderate level of stress, 41 (21.5%) had high level of stress and 3 (1.6%) had very high level of stress. More than 104 (54.5%) of the respondents had no depression and 87 (45.5%) of the mothers attending immunization visit or postpartum care had possible depression. It was recommended that extended family members should be educated on how to provide care and support for new mothers to ease the burden they experience.