Relationship between social support and postpartum depression.

S. Farhana  Kazmi; Munza  Khan; Roshan  Tahir; Sher  Dil; Asima Mehboob  Khan

To investigate the postpartum depression among the women in Hazara Division. The purpose of the study was to measure the prevalence of PPD among the married women and also check the relationship of social support with the level of severity of postpartum depression. Study Design: Convenience sampling technique Place and Duration: 1000 women from the Hospitals and Postnatal Clinics of Hospitals (Ayub Medical complex Abbottabad, Women & Children hospital Abbottabad , DHQ Hospital Mansehra and Balakot through convenient sampling technique. Present study includes women who gave birth to a baby in Hazara Division. Materials and Methods: For the present study women with the age ranging from 18-45 years with the symptoms of postpartum depression were approached from the different areas of Abbottabad and District Mansehra. An indigenously developed PPD scale in Urdu language was used to measure Results: Postpartum depression among women with reliability (r= .86). 200 women were found depressed on the PPD scale. Result indicates that prevalence of postpartum depression stands 20% overall. t-test showed that higher the social support lesser would be the PPD and vice versa of this reason may become a risk to develop postpartum depression. Present study also revealed that the women living in joint setup receive more social support from their family, friends or spouse are less likely to be sufferer of PPD, as compared to those women living in nuclear family setup who have received less social support. Study offers further guidelines to the researchers to explore various unidentified dimensions of PPD with reference to biological and genetic factors.