The Impact of antenatal education on postpartum depression, Dezful, Iran

Introduction: Postpartum depression is the most common serious mental disorder in the postpartum period. Postpartum depression is associated with serious complications for mother, baby and her family. This study is designed to investigate the effect of antenatal education on pregnancy depression in theses who referred to Dezful health canters. Methods: This case-control study was carried out on 140 non depressive pregnant women with gestational age between 26-30 weeks. These women were randomly divided into two groups, experimental group and controls of Antenatal education classes. The research data was collected using standard questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventor and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. The data was analyzed using t and chi-square tests. Results: Result showed that 31.4% of women had the Edinburgh Depression Score of 10 or more. A significant increase in the mean score of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale in controls compared with the experimental group (P<0.001) was observed. Furthermore, attendance in the antenatal education decreased the likelihood of the Postnatal Depression {OR= 2.7, 95% CI (1.4-4.10)}. Conclusion: Findings showed that the antenatal education decrease the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Score significantly, hence the screening of depression in pregnancy and antenatal education is recommended.