Investigation of the relationship between postpartum depression and childhood traumas

Postpartum depression is a significant public health problem with crucial impact on both mother's and infant's mental health. Therefore identifying risk factors for postpartum depression is of great importance. In this study it is aimed to investigate the relationship between postpartum depression and childhood traumas. A total of 150 women between the ages of 20-40 who gave birth in the last 8 weeks were included in the study. As data collection tools, Personal Information Form was used to collect sociodemographic information, Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS), to evaluate postpartum depression symptom level, and Childhood Trauma Scale (CTS) to assess the presence of childhood traumas. Our results show that 57,3% of the participants had postpartum depression. Postpartum depression symptoms did not differ according to participants' age, educational and income level, number of children, birth order, presence of miscarriage and stillbirth, whether the current pregnancy was planned or not, past history of depression, past history of postpartum depression, and the presence of a previously diagnosed mental disorder. A positive correlation was found between postpartum depression symptoms and CTS-total scores (r = .379, p <0.01). There were positive relationship between postpartum depression symptom level and CTS-physical abuse, emotional abuse, and emotional neglect scores (r=.251, p<0.0; r=.409, p<0.01; r=.392, p<0.0). No relationship were found between postpartum depression symptom level and CRS-physical neglect and sexual abuse scores.