Maternal postpartum depressive symptoms outcome
depression, self-blame, anxiety, ideation
Overall, 28.5% (n = 122) of the mothers had a total EPDS score ≥ 10 and 15.2% (n = 65) had a total EPDS score ≥ 13. For the EPDS subscales, 32.7% (n = 140), 30.6% (n = 131) and 74.1% (n = 317) reported a score of ≥ 10 for anxiety, depression, and PHQ-2 subscales, respectively. When looking at the individual items of the EPDS, we found the number of mothers reporting negative feelings on the EPDS ranged from 6.5% (n = 28) for suicidal ideation to 86.7% (n = 371) for loss of enjoyment. More than half of the mothers reported not being able to laugh (50.9%; n = 218) and self-blame (52.8%; n = 226), almost half reported feeling anxious (43.0%; n = 184), not being able to cope (45.3%; 194) and feeling sad (49.3%; n = 211), while 26.9% (n = 115) reported feeling scared and 31.5% (n = 135) reported crying often. The internal consistency of the EPDS questionnaire in the sample was satisfactory, having a Cronbach alpha of 0.752.