Introduction: Understanding the pandemic-related influences on postpartum depression (PPD) is crucial to informing public health strategies and interventions that support maternal mental health during and after periods of crisis. Objectives: This study analyzed patterns of PPD during the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods, and evaluated whether PPD levels in the post-pandemic period differed from those observed before the pandemic. The post-pandemic period was examined to determine whether pandemic-associated differences in PPD persisted following the end of the pandemic. Methods: This is a retrospective cohort study, where Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores of primiparous women who gave birth at a tertiary private hospital between March 2018 and May 2024 were analyzed. Results: At the end, the cohort study consisted of a total of 1128 participants, with 248 (22.0%) in the pre-COVID period, 539 (47.8%) in the early post-COVID period, and 341 (30.2%) in the post-pandemic period. When examining the mean EPDS scores, the early post-COVID group had the lowest scores among the three groups. While there was no statistically significant difference between the pre-COVID (6.49) and early post-COVID (5.81) scores, a significant difference was observed between the early post-COVID and post-pandemic (7.01) scores ( p = 0.002). A moderate, positive correlation was identified between EPDS scores and the length of hospital stay (r = 0.70). Prolonged hospitalization appeared to be associated with higher depression scores. Conclusion: The results of our study indicate higher PPD scores in the late post-pandemic period, suggesting that the pandemic’s mental health effects have evolved over time. While initial assessments showed comparable PPD scores pre- and post-pandemic, our findings reveal a concerning rise starting in 2023, aligning with emerging evidence on the pandemic’s prolonged psychological impact. Understanding the delayed impact of such global events is key to developing resilient maternal health systems.
Alper et al. (Thu,) studied this question.