The Relationship of Sense of Coherence and Quality of Sleep with Symptoms of Post-Partum Depression and Mother-Infant Attachment in Primiparous Women Re-ferring to Lamerd Maternity Wards in 2021

Considering the importance of primiparous women’s condition in the postpartum period and the need to recognize various physical, psychological, cognitive and social factors in order to address their health status, the present study was designed to determine the relationship of sense of coherence and quality of sleep with symptoms of postpartum depression and mother-infant attachment in primiparous women referring to Lamerd maternity wards in 2021.

This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 156 primiparous women selected by consensus sampling. Data were collected using a demographic information form, Antonovsky’s sense of coherence scale, Pittsburgh sleep quality index, Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, and the mother-infant attachment scale. The collected data were entered into SPSS, version 24, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and linear regression tests at the significance level of P<0.05.

The mean age of the mothers participating in the research was 27.10±5.25 years; 62.8% of them had vaginal deliveries, and most of them had bachelor's degrees. Mothers’ quality of sleep was rated as very poor in 65.4% of them. The mean score of the overall sense of coherence was 132.53±18.78, depression symptoms 12.09±2.79, the mean score of mother-infant attachment was 65.19±11.60. The multiple linear regression showed that for one unit increase in the sense of coherence score, the mother-infant attachment score increases by 0.19, and one unit increase in the level of household income towards optimal income is associated with an increase of 3.78 in the mother-infant attachment score. Also, for one unit increase in the sense of coherence score, the depression symptoms’ score decreases by 0.04 and the mother’s being employed is associated with a decrease of 0.86 in the score of depression symptoms.

The results of this study suggest that there is a relationship between the sense of coherence and the symptoms of depression and mother-infant attachment in primiparous women referring to maternity wards in Lamerd. Future studies are recommended to implement appropriate interventions to improve the sense of coherence in this group of mothers.