Profile Pic of Mediterranean Journal Of Pharmacy And Pharmaceutical Sciences Mediterranean Journal Of Pharmacy And Pharmaceutical Sciences

Postpartum depression and associated risk factors in libya

  • Authors Details :  
  • Nagat M. Saeed,  
  • Aisha S. Elrayani,  
  • Roba F. Sherif,  
  • Fathi M. Sherif

728 Views Original Article

Postpartum depression is a major maternal health problem after childbirth. It can start at any time within the first year after delivery and continue for several years. It is characterized by an inability to experience pleasure, anxiety symptoms, panic attacks, spontaneous crying and depressed mood. Some women with postpartum depression even have thoughts of harming their child and self-harm. The aim of this study is to find out the status of postpartum depression and the associated factors among postnatal mothers at first-, fourth- and sixth-month. This study is a prospective descriptive study, carried out in three major health facilities in Misurata. This study consists of three-part questionnaire. Part 1 covers demographic characteristics of the participants, while part 2 explores the associated risk factors according to the variables used. Part 3 constitutes for the psychological evaluation of the participants. Hundred mothers (age are between 15 and 43 years) were enrolled in this study. The findings revealed that prevalence of depression is 60% and 22% are suffering from borderline depression. Development of depression was strongly correlated with the sleeping disturbances, state of the neonate after birth, excess consumption of stimulants, less weight acceptance by mothers during pregnancy and infant illness. There was a weak relation between depression and delivery state, maternal admission to hospital during current pregnancy, and infant gender dissatisfaction. No correlation was found with development of depression regarding miscarriage, maternal medical problems after delivery, previous child sex, maternal age, education, parity or neonate weight. Thus, this study shows that a chance of having miscarriage and unhealthy neonate increases with advanced maternal age. It also shows that caesarean section is associated with bad neonatal outcomes, more weight gain and having gestational diabetes or preeclampsia during pregnancy. Maternal sleeping problems are more pronounced in the first month, attributing for the baby care, compared with fourth and sixth months. The study indicates that depression is a common state of psychiatric disorders among Libyan women and should have an appropriate attention by physicians and gynecologists.

Article DOI & Crossmark Data

DOI : https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6780513

Article Subject Details


Article Keywords Details



Article File

Full Text PDF





More Article by Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

The perspective of covid-19 vaccines

The current covid-19 is now endemic on everycontinent and becomes the most challenging outbreaks over centuries, thus millions of people have been infected with the novel coronavir...

Mokhtar r. haman: a dedication to his memory

It is with more sorrow and tremendous sadness we remember the death of our colleague the libyan pharmacist, professor mokhtar ramadan haman, at his home in tripoli, libya after lon...

In silico studies of 2-(4-(aminomethyl)phenyl)isoindoline-1,3-dione schiff base derivatives as potential inhibitors against main protease covid-19 enzyme

The 2019 coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic is spreading worldwide, with a spectacular increase in death missing any effective therapeutic treatment up to now. molecular docking is a ...

Phytochemical screening and structure elucidation of isolated compounds from convolvulus dorycnium plant originated from west of libya

Plants are an ancient source of medicine due to the presence of bioactive molecules of various compounds in their different parts. convolvulus dorycnium plant belongs to the family...