การสนับสนุนทางสังคมและภาวะซึมเศร้าหลังคลอดในมารดาผ่าตัดคลอด สาธารณรัฐประชาธิปไตยประชาชนลาว

Abstract

Postpartum depression is an emotional change that has negative impacts on mothers’physical and psychological health. The purpose of this descriptive correlational research was to determine the relationship between social support and postpartum depression among mothers who received a cesarean section in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. The participants were 85 postpartum mothers having cesarean section at six weeks postpartum receiving a postpartum check up at Mother and Newborn Hospital and Mahosod Hospital, from May to July 2020. The research instruments were 1) the Demographic Data Record Form 2) the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scales (Cox et al., 1987), Thai version by Pitanupong, Liabsuetrakul, and Vittayanont (2007), translated to Lao language by the researcher and 3) the Mother Social Support Questionnaire (Sitthiboonma, Kantaruksa, & Supavititpatana, 2015), translated to Lao language by the researcher. Descriptive statistics and Spearman rank-order correlation were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that: 1. Of the participants, 10.60% had postpartum depression and 89.40% had no postpartum depression. 2. The participants had an average score of overall social support at a high level (x̅ = 4.62, S.D. = 0.10). The average score of each aspect showed that emotional support (x̅ = 4.64, S.D. = 0.21), information support (x̅ = 4.57, S.D. = 0.20), instrument support (x̅ = 4.61, S.D. = 0.17) and evaluation support (x̅ = 4.67, S.D. = 0.18) were at high levels. 3. Social support had a statistically significant moderate negative correlation with postpartum depression among mothers having cesarean section (r = -.316, p < 0.05). The findings suggest that mothers having cesarean section should be assessed for social support and postpartum depression. Nurse–midwives should develop strategies to enhance social support to prevent postpartum depression among mothers having cesarean section.