Relationship Between Postpartum Depression and Psychological and Biological Variables in the Initial Postpartum Period.

Objectives The aims of this study were to evaluate the predictive relationship between psychological symptomatology 24 h postpartum and depression 4 months postpartum, and analyze the relationship between estradiol and postpartum mood. Methods Two hundred women participated in an assessment 24 h postpartum and gave a blood sample for estradiol analysis. One hundred eleven of these women completed the second assessment 4 months postpartum. The Beck Depression Inventory II and the Scale of State-Trait Anxiety were used to assess psychological symptoms. Results At 24 h postpartum, symptoms of depression, trait anxiety, and state anxiety were all significantly correlated with each other. Depression at 24 h postpartum was the only significant independent predictor of depression at 4 months postpartum, explaining 28.7% of the variance. No statistically significant relationship was found between levels of estradiol and mood. Symptoms of depression immediately postpartum thus appear to be a predictor of postpartum depression. Conclusions for Practice These results suggest that early postpartum psychological evaluation of the mother, and intervention as warranted, might prevent or lessen postpartum depression.

Factor structure, validity, and reliability of the Spanish version of the Women's Views of Birth Labour Satisfaction Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: to analyse the factor structure of the Women's Views of Birth Labour Satisfaction Questionnaire (WOMBLSQ) using confirmatory factor analysis. DESIGN: prospective cross-sectional study. Data were collected through a mail questionnaire. SETTING: the study was conducted at a University Hospital in Madrid. PARTICIPANTS: 298 pregnant Spanish women. METHODS: confirmatory factor analysis was used to identify the best-fit model. FINDINGS: the best fit for the Spanish version of the scale was an eight-factor model, after removing the control factor from the original scale, and merging all items related to pain into one. Internal consistency was satisfactory for the full scale (.82), although the reliability of two factors was less than .45. CONCLUSION: this study has provided preliminary evidence that supports the use of the Spanish version of the WOMBLSQ to assess childbirth satisfaction in Spanish-speaking women. Nevertheless, further studies will be needed to determine the validity of the questionnaire and to compare it to other existing tools.