TITLE:
Confinement Following Child Birth and Associated Postpartum Mental Distress
AUTHORS:
Lonia Mwape, Mutinta C. Muleya, Patricia Katowa Mukwato, Margaret Maimbolwa
KEYWORDS:
Mental Distress, Confinement, Childbirth, Postnatal, Postpartum
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Psychiatry,
Vol.8 No.2,
April
28,
2018
ABSTRACT: Objective: This study sought to explore confinement following childbirth and
its association with mental distress. Methods: A descriptive-analytical cross
sectional study design was used. The study was conducted in two districts of
Zambia representing an urban and rural setting, targeting parenting mothers
during the first two months after delivery. Systematic random sampling technique
was used to select the participants. Every second case seen at the study
sites between March to August 2017 was selected to participate in the study.
The data were collected using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and
analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.
Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine the relationship between
the dependent and independent variables while binary logistic regression
was used to check the combined impact of independent variables on
mental distress. Ethical approval was obtained from the local Research Ethics
Committees. Participation in the study was voluntary. Results: A total of 200
women participated in the study. The results revealed a high prevalence of
mental distress, with 42 percent of women reporting severe levels, and 36.0
percent showing moderate levels. A statistically significant relationship was
found between mental distress and confinement (X² = 29.289; P = 0.001), residential
type (X² = 16.863; P = 0.001), and age (X² = 17.996; P = 0.006). Suicidal
thoughts during confinement were also found to be prevalent in 16 percent
of the participants. Binary logistic regression revealed that changes in
confinement period from below 2 weeks to between 2 weeks and 1 month
raised the odds of suffering mental distress 5.127 times while changes from a
confinement period of between 2 weeks and 1 month to over 1 month raised
the odds of suffering mental distress 7.737 times. Conclusion: The study results
confirmed an association between confinement and mental distress, revealing
that the longer the confinement, the more at risk the women were of
mental distress.