Author(s)

Rumi Ishihara^1,2*, Keiko Nagamine³, Yoshie Nishikawa⁴, Mari Haku⁵, Hirokazu Uemura⁶, Yukie Matsuura⁷, Toshiyuki Yasui⁷

¹Midwifery Program, Kagawa Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Kagawa, Japan.
²Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, Japan.
³Kansai University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Hyogo, Japan.
⁴Tsurugi-Handa Hospital, Tokushima, Japan.
⁵Department of Midwifery, Tokushima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima, Japan.
⁶College of Nursing Art and Science, University of Hyogo, Hyogo, Japan.
⁷Department of Reproductive and Menopausal Medicine, Tokushima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima, Japan.

Background: Depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms during the postpartum period affect physical health and child rearing and that these effects are important social issues. Objective: The aims of this study were to clarify the differences in the transition of depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms according to parity during a 6-month postpartum period and to clarify the differences in associations of depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms with feelings for involvement with newborn infants in primiparous and multiparous postpartum women. Methods: The design of this study was a longitudinal investigation. This study was conducted from February 2017 to July 2018 in Japan. By using self-administered questionnaires that included questions on psychological symptoms in a standard climacteric scale and questions on feelings for involvement with newborn infants, we collected data at 3 days postpartum, 2 weeks postpartum, one month postpartum, 3 months postpartum and 6 months postpartum. Results: Responses to all of the questionnaires were obtained from 121 (52.8%) of 229 women. The score for depressive symptoms in primiparous women was significantly higher than that in multiparous women at 3 days postpartum. Depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms showed peaks at 2 weeks postpartum in both primiparous women and multiparous women, but depressive symptoms reoccurred from 3 months postpartum to 6 months postpartum in primiparous women and anxiety symptoms reoccurred from one month to 3 months postpartum in multiparous women. Depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms were associated with negative feelings for involvement with newborn infants and with mother’s sleeping time. Conclusion: Changes in depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms were different in primiparous women and multiparous women during a 6-month postpartum period. In addition, depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms were associated with negative feelings for involvement with newborn infants and with sleeping time in postpartum women.

Depressive Symptoms, Anxiety Symptoms, Parity, Involvement with New-born Infants

Ishihara, R., Nagamine, K., Nishikawa, Y., Haku, M., Uemura, H., Matsuura, Y. and Yasui, T. (2020) Transition of Depressive Symptoms and Anxiety Symptoms Ac-cording to Parity and Associations of These Symptoms with Feelings for In-volvement with Newborn Infants during a 6-Month Postpartum Period. Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 10, 1315-1330. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojog.2020.1090121