Determinants of Postpartum Depression According to the World Health Organization Model: A Review of Literature

Postpartum depression(PPD) is the most common psychological disorder after childbirth, which may cause serious effects on mothers, infants and families. The present study aims at identifying these factors, according to social determinants based on the World Health Organization Model.

In this review of literature, the key words "postpartum depression" in Persian and English languages and within the time period of 2010 and 2020, were searched in national and international databases including; SID, PubMed ProQuest, Elsevier and Scopus. Considering the input criteria and studying PPD and its related factors, 38 articles were finally selected.

This targeted review of literature resulted in the extraction of 31 factors in two structural and intermediate dimensions. In the articles the relation between PPD and socio-economic situation, race, place of residence, perceived social support, marriage satisfaction, home violence, history of depression and psychiatric disorders, psychological pressure, daily stresses and breastfeeding self-efficiency is verified. Type of pregnancy, problems and side effects of it, preterm delivery, breastfeeding, low weight baby at birth are factors influencing PPD. Postpartum depression can influence mother and infant emotional relationships and have neonatal outcomes. On the other hand, neonatal disorders and diseases in the first four- weeks had a positive meaningful relation with PPD. Training and the quality of pregnancy and postpartum care were also related to postpartum depression.

The conclusions gained from studying the review of literature shows that the World Health Organization Model is capable of determining the social factors related to postpartum depression.