Postpartum Morbidities and the Influential Factors in Gonabad, Iran (2016)

Postpartum morbidities are among the most important health problems across the world. However, the frequency and types of these morbidities remain unclear. The present study aimed to evaluate postpartum morbidities and the influential factors in the women in Gonabad city, Iran.
This cross-sectional study was conducted in Gonabad city, located in the northeast of Iran, during 2015-2016. Subjects included 158 pregnant women referring to the community health center in Gonabad for prenatal care. Data on the pregnancy period were collected using the general health questionnaire (GHQ-28) and demographic questionnaires, and the scale of postpartum morbidities was used two months after delivery. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Chi-square at the significance level of P The most common postpartum morbidities included pain in the C-section sutures (69%), fatigue (50%), backache (46.5%), episiotomy pain (46.5%), and sleep disturbance (44.4%). Moreover, statistically significant correlations were observed between headaches and feeding method (P=0.038), constipation and low maternal age (P=0.027), flatulence and mode of delivery (P=0.018), pain in C-section sutures and high maternal age (P=0.017), episiotomy pain and low maternal age (P=0.008), urinary frequency and maternal occupation (P=0.029), sore nipples and low maternal age (P=0.013), sore nipples and exclusive breastfeeding (P=0.040), and dysuria and neonatal weight (P According to the results, the most common postpartum morbidities were pain in C-section site, fatigue, backache, episiotomy pain, and sleep disturbance. Considering the high frequency of these morbidities, it is recommended that accurate postpartum examinations be performed, focusing on the timely diagnosis and treatment of these problems.