The Connections of Pregnancy-, Delivery-, and Infant-Related Risk Factors and Negative Life Events on Postpartum Depression and Their Role in First and Recurrent Depression

Table 1

Adverse experiences during the antenatal and postnatal period in the nondepressed and depressed group.

	⁢Nondepressed group		⁢Depressed group		value^5
	⁢		⁢⁢
		%		%
Unwanted pregnancy	6	5.8	21	20.4	0.002
Depression during pregnancy	5	4.8	44	42.3	<0.001
Mental symptoms during pregnancy excl. depression	12	11.5	35	33.7	<0.001
(i) Fears	3	2.9	11	10.6	0.027
(ii) Miscellaneous^1	9	8.7	27	26.0	0.001
Complicated pregnancy	44	42.3	50	48.1	0.403
(i) Hyperemesis	4	3.8	15	14.4	0.008
(ii) Pregnancy complications^2	41	39.4	42	40.4	0.887
(iii) Infertility treatment	4	3.8	1	1.0	0.366^6
Complicated delivery	31	29.8	46	44.7	0.031
(i) Pain	7	6.7	20	19.2	0.007
(ii) Miscellaneous^3	24	23.1	27	26	0.629
Infant’s symptoms and illnesses	14	13.5	32	30.8	0.003
(i) Infantile colic	6	5.8	17	16.3	0.015
(ii) Fetal abnormalities	4	3.8	5	4.8	1.000^6
(iii) Miscellaneous^4	4	3.8	10	9.6	0.097
Breastfeeding cessation	18	17.3	40	38.5	0.001
Negative life events	27	26.0	47	45.2	0.004
(i) Death of significant others	12	11.5	13	12.5	0.831
(ii) Sickness (own or significant others)	8	7.7	16	15.4	0.083
(iii) Relationship problems	5	4.8	17	16.3	0.007
(iv) Socioeconomic problems	4	3.8	8	7.7	0.234

, panic, obsessions, insomnia, fatigue, tearfulness, sensitivity, psychosomatic symptoms, headache, and loss of appetite. ²Pain, diabetes mellitus, anemia, toxemia, preeclampsia, hepatogestosis, pruritus, premature contractions, infection, vaginal bleeding, and small-for-date infant. ³No contractions, lengthy labor, instrumental delivery, excessive bleeding, infection, emergency section, and fatigue. ⁴Eating problems, breathing problems, infections, and allergy. ⁵Pearson’s chi-square test. ⁶Fisher’s exact test.