Background & Objectives: Pregnancy and puerperium are labile phases in a women’s life, making her at risk for the development of psychiatric issues. Postpartum depression is one of the most common psychopathology to arise. Whereas, anemia is one of the most common medical complication during pregnancy. The study and treatment of anemia during pregnancy and after pregnancy can be considered as an important preventive and therapeutic measure for postpartum depression as both share similar clinical features & limited studies show anemia as a physiologic factor leading to postpartum depression.

The present study is aimed at determining the proportion of postpartum depression cases among postnatal mother who have had gestational anemia during their antepartum period & postpartum period

Methodology: The study was conducted on 120 postnatal mothers delivered in SGMC, TVM meeting the inclusion & exclusion criteria & divided into 40 cases & 80 controls based on their EPDS score. Their Laboratory data on the maternal Hb levels which were collected at the time of their 2^nd trimester, admission and on postpartum days 3 will be checked and. Then further evaluation of the study variables  was done to assess for the objectives over a period of 2 years

Results: In current study, among cases, 17.5% of mothers had hemoglobin level of 10 to 11g/dl and 7.5% of mothers had hemoglobin level of 7 to 10g/dl during 2nd trimester. Among cases, 55% of mothers had hemoglobin level of 10 to 11g/dl 12.5% of mothers had hemoglobin level of 7 to 10g/dl during admission.

Therefore, in the antenatal period, among cases, 32.5% of mothers had no anemia whereas 67.5% of mothers had anemia. Thereby it was understood that significantly higher incidence of post-partum depression present among mothers with antenatal maternal anemia In current study, among cases 12.5% of mothers had hemoglobin of more than 10g/dl whereas 87.5% of mothers had hemoglobin of less than 10g/dl. There was significantly higher incidence of post-partum depression among mothers with postnatal maternal anemia

Conclusion:  It was showed that maternal anemia is the major risk factor with significant incidence of development of post-partum depression among mothers. Thus anemia can be considered as a physiological variable leading to postpartum depression

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Dr Vandhana Sudhan

Sree Gokulam Medical College and Research Foundation under Kerala University of Sciences