1994 Volume 8 Issue 1 Pages 32-41
Since Women are said to be confronted with developmental crisis in the process of becoming a mother, we consider that “maternity blues” might be one of the signs of that crisis. Thus in orber to reveal the relationship between signs of maternity blues observed in postpartum period and maternal consciousness developed in the process of becoming a mother during perinatal period, a survey was conducted in 270 puerperae using Zung's Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) and other scales to determine the degree of maternity blues, maternal consciousness during gestational and postpartum periods, and satisfaction with delivery, the rate of effective reply was 100%.
Subjects were 28.6 years of age in average, 58% of them were primiparae, and the mean SDS score (+SD) was 33.65 (±6.5). Subjects were divided into two groups: the depressed group with the score of mean+1SD or over, and the non-depressed group with the score of less than mean+1SD.
Comparative analysis of two groups revealed statistically significant differences in consciousness during gestational and postpartum periods and satisfaction with delivery between two groups: the non-depression group showed more positive consciousness and a higher level of satisfaction. There were significant correlations between negative maternal consciousness during gestational and postpartum periods and dissatisfaction with delivery.
