Maternal Resilience and Postpartum Depression at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Frontiers in Pediatrics

article

Eva Mautner¹  Christina Stern¹  Alexander Avian³  Maria Deutsch¹  Herbert Fluhr¹  Elfriede Greimel¹ 

[1] Division of Obstetrics, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University of Graz;Department of Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Graz;Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Documentation, Medical University of Graz

关键词: neonatal intensive care unit;    depression;    resilience;    postpartum;    maternal;    depressive symptoms;    women;    mothers;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fped.2022.864373

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Background The neonatal intensive care unit causes maternal stress and postpartum depressive symptoms in preterm and term mothers. Personal resources like maternal resilience are usually not considered in counselling these women. Objective This study aims to evaluate the resilience and differences in postpartum depression after admission of newborns at the neonatal intensive care unit. Methods This prospective pilot study was conducted in a single teaching hospital in Austria from December 2016 until December 2018. Sixty women completed two internationally validated questionnaires, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to evaluate depressive symptoms and the Resilience Scale RS-13 to measure maternal resilience during the postpartum period (3 to 10 days postpartum). Additionally, women answered two open questions about burdens and relief. Results Twenty women (34%) showed lower resilience scores. The 39 high-resilient women (66%) showed significantly less depression ( p = 0.005). Women reported social support from their partner ( n = 15), health professionals and psychologists ( n = 15), family and friends ( n = 12), and child-specific relief, e.g., spending time with the newborn and involvement in care ( n = 7) as the most helpful variable during the first postpartum period. Conclusion The experience of having a newborn at the neonatal intensive care unit is a challenging event for women. Women have different resilience parameters. Mothers with lower resilience will benefit from social support and emotional health-promoting activities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY