Comparison of emotional intelligence and postpartum depression between mothers with natural vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery

Depression is the most important psychological disorder after childbirth that could have adverse impacts on the mothers, their children, and their families. This study was designed to compare emotional intelligence and postpartum depression between mothers with natural vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery. In this descriptive analysis, 95 primiparous women included 49 natural vaginal deliveries (NVD) and 46 cesarean section (CS), that referred to health centers in Ferdows city and had inclusion criteria were studied. The data collection instruments consisted of a demographic questionnaire, standard Beck Depression Inventory and the Shering's Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, which completed by mothers three months after delivery. Reliability of questionnaires was obtained by using of Cronbach Alpha coefficient between 0.90 and 0.82 respectively. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 15 and independent t-tests, ANOVA, Range Tukey, Fisher’s z, Pearson, and Regression with 0.05 significant level. In this study 63.3% mothers with NVD and 71.7% with CS were housewife, and 59.2% of mothers with NVD and 50% with CS were 25 years old or lower. Results showed that the mean score for postpartum depression, emotional intelligence and its components were not significantly different between two groups (p>0.05). There was a significant negative correlation between postpartum depression and emotional intelligence and its components in total and both groups of mothers with natural or cesarean delivery (p> 0.001). According to findings, postpartum depression could be reduced by increasing emotional intelligence through performing educational programs and employing proper methods.