A Study to Assess the Knowledge Regarding Postnatal Depression among Pregnant Women in a Selected Hospital of New Delhi

Childbirth is a difficult and exhausting process. A female goes through a lot of hormonal, physical, emotional and psychological changes throughout pregnancy. Tremendous changes occur in the mothers familial and interpersonal world. After childbirth a mother can experience varied emotions ranging from joy and pleasure to sadness and crying bouts. Postnatal depression is a global childbirth-related problem that affects many women and if ignored can have long-term adverse consequences, for both mother and child 2. Postnatal depression refers to as a non-psychotic depressive episode that begins within the first 4 weeks of postnatal period 3. (WHO, 2018). Postnatal depression is as one of the world’s increasing epidemics, and affects approximately 11-42% of postnatal women globally. This shows that Postnatal depression is a major public health concern for childbearing women (Beck, 1993)4 We aimed to assess the knowledge of pregnant women regarding postnatal depression moreover we examined the association between the knowledge regarding postnatal depression and the demographic variables. A quantitative research approach was used where the Antenatal mother’s both Primigravida and Multi-gravida attending Antenatal OPD were selected using convenient sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge regarding postnatal depression among pregnant women. The tool was validated by 9 experts from the field of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department and Mental Health Department. The reliability of the structured questionnaire was established using Cronbach’s Alpha Formula which was 0.87. The data gathered was analysed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics. The study showed that the majority of antenatal mother’s (55%) had average knowledge, whereas (4%) of mothers had good knowledge and (41%) of mothers had poor knowledge regarding postnatal depression. There is no significance of association of knowledge regarding postnatal depression with socio demographic variables as the Chi- Square value was less than the Critical value at 0.05 level of significance. The Main aim of the study was to assess the knowledge regarding Postnatal Depression among Antenatal mothers attending Antenatal OPD. Majority of the mothers had average knowledge about Postnatal Depression.