The relationship between postnatal depression andmaternal attachment of mothers with baby heartsurgery

The research was carried out in a descriptive relationship-seeking type in order to determine the level of postpartum depression, maternal attachment level and the relationship between them in mothers whose babies had heart surgery. The population of the study is the mothers of the babies who had heart surgery at Health Sciences University Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic, Cardiovascular Surgery Training and Research Hospital between December 1, 2022 and May 2023 and followed up in the Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery Intensive Care Unit, and the sample of which met the inclusion criteria. It consisted of 34 mothers. Descriptive Information Form, Visual Analog Scale, Maternal Attachment Scale and Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale were used for data collection. Data were collected within the first 2-4 hours after the baby was operated. It was found that the mean maternal attachment score of the mothers in the study group was 98.11±4.00, and the mean postpartum depression score was 16.35±7.00. The relationship between maternal attachment levels and postpartum depression levels was not statistically significant (rp=0.127; p=0.473). There was no significant difference between the characteristics of the study group and maternal attachment scores. Postpartum depression mean scores of mothers living in a nuclear family, breastfeeding their baby after the first 30 minutes after birth, and hospitalized for more than 30 days were significantly higher (p<0.05). As a result, it was determined that the maternal attachment level of the mothers whose babies had heart surgery was good, the mothers were in the risk group in terms of postpartum depression level, and there was no significant relationship between maternal attachment level and postpartum depression level.