The Association on between the perceived social support and postpartum depression

This study was planned to determine the association between the perceived social support and postpartum depression. Our group was consisted of 300 mothers admitted to Dokuz Eylül University Hospital healthy children outpatient clinic at postpartum 4-8 weeks. Data collection enstruments were Couples' Presentation Form, Perceived Social Support Scale.and Edinburg Postpartum Depresion Scale. Datas were evaluated with percentage, importance of difference between two averages test, mann-whitney U test, variance analysis, correlation analysis, simple regression analysis and logistic regression analysis. According to evaluation results; average postpartum depression point was 10.70±4.85 and average perceived social support point was 61.40±16.44. We couldn't find an association between depression points and age, employment status, inconce, marriage years, number of children, type of delivery, whether she had support after delivery and number of persons in the house (p>0.05). There was an association between depression points and mother's education, partner's education, profession, marital status, readiness to maternity and wanting this pregnancy (p<0.05). In correlation analysis there was a negative significant association between postpartum depression and perceived social support (p<0.01). Regression showed that percerved social support had a 13% effect on postpartum depression. These results, gave as some recommendations for nurses and investig Key Words: Postpartum, depression, perceived social support, postpartum period, risk factors, emotional disorders. -a^sss8*