ABSTRACT
To determine the frequency and associated sociodemographic, obstetric and medical factors for postnatal depression in an outpatient sample. A descriptive, cross-sectional study. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Benazir Bhutto Hospital [formerly Rawalpindi General Hospital], Rawalpindi, between June 2006 and February 2007. The sample consisted of women who were in the puerperal period [6 weeks postpartum]. They were screened with the help of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale [Urdu version] and the severity of depression was rated with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. A total of 51 participants, or 33.1% of a sample of 154 women suffered from postnatal depression, the majority of whom were either moderately or severely depressed. The demographic profile of depressed patients showed that they were young [mean age around 25 years], had a low level of education [below the matriculate level] and came from the lower socioeconomic class. They had small families comprising of fewer than 3 children, were married for less than 5 years and the majority were from extended families [living with in-laws]. Postnatal depression was found in almost 1/3rd of the study participants and the pre-ponderance of them suffered from moderate or severe depression. They were young and came from a background of socio-economic adversity. Since postnatal depression had adverse consequences for the mother and her newborn baby, there was an urgent need to direct more attention to this problem, in particular towards its early detection, so that morbidity could be reduced in this group of women