Abstract:
Introduction: Postpartum depression is the most common complication of childbearing age
women and is considerable public health problem.The transition into motherhood is a difficult
period that involves significant changes in the psychological, social and physiological aspects,
and has increased vulnerability for the development of mental illness. More than one in 10
pregnant women and one in 20 postnatal women in Ethiopia suffer from undetected depression.
OBJECTIVES: To assess the prevalence and associated factors of postpartum depression
among mothers who gave birth in the last Twelve months in Ankesha District, Awi Zone, North
West Ethiopia, 2018
METHODS: Community based cross sectional study was conducted among 596 postpartum
mothers in Ankesha District, North West Ethiopia, from February 01 to 30, 2018. One stage
cluster sampling technique was employed to get the study participants. Interviewer administered
questionnaire was used to collect data and Eden Burg Postpartum Depression Scale was used to
assess postpartum depression with cutoff point ≥8. The data was entered into Epi data version
3.1 and exported to SPSS version 24 for analysis. All variables with P<0.25 in the bivariate
analysis were included in to final model and statistical significance was declared at P< 0.05.
Ethical clearance was obtained from respective offices and voluntary consent was taken from all
participants.
Result: In this study, a total of 596 study participants were involved making response rate of
97.4%, the prevalence of postpartum depression was 23.7% with 95%CI: 20.3-27.2. From the
participant mothers who had Divorced/widowed/unmrried (AOR=3.45 95%CI: 1.35-8.82),
unwanted pregnancy (AOR=1.95 95%CI: 1.14-3.33), unpreferred infant sex (AOR=1.79
95%CI:1.13- 2.86), infant illness (AOR=2.08 95%CI: 1.30 -3.34) and low social support
(AOR=3.16 95% CI: 1.55 - 6.43) was independent predictors of postpartum depression.
Conclusion and Recomendation: One in five women suffers from postpartum depression
(23.7%). Marital status, unwanted pregnancy, unwanted infant sex, infant illness and low social
support were independant predictors of postpartum depression. Therefore, integration of mental
illness with maternal and child health care is important, information communication education
and behavioural change communications on postpartum depression is better been given attention.
