The goal was to determine whether poor social support and undiagnosed depression in the previous pregnancy have an impact on the development of peripartal complications.
We investigated 103 women 3 days after vaginal delivery. Investigated women filed a social support questionnaire with 7 questions. 1 We asumed that women with ¡°poor social suport¡± would give 2 or more positive answers on these questions.
We found that all eight woman in childbed which had 2 or more positive answers on social support questionaiere, were at the group with examined complications (n = 61), and none was in the control group (n = 42). These eight women had by far the greatest mean score in Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and of Impact of Events Scale revised (IES-R) of all other subgroups examined in the previously published study. 2 They also had a statistically significant difference in both scores versus the control group (n = 42).
According to these results we concluded that poor social support and previosly undiagnosed pospartal depression may have an impact both on peripartal complications and postpartum psychiatric disorders development.