Examining mothers' obsessive and compulsive behaviors regarding baby care, cyberchondria level and maternal burnout in the postpartum period: Path analysis.

Abstract

Objective: To examine the effects of postpartum women's obsessive and compulsive behaviors towards the care of their babies and maternal exhaustion levels on cyberchondria.

Methods: The study, designed as a cross-sectional and correlation-seeking study, included 275 mothers. Data were collected from Turkish mothers with maternal burnout scale (MBS), scale for obsessive and compulsive behavıors of mothers ın the postpartum perıod wıth regard to baby care and cyberchondria severity scale (CSS).

Results: A total of 41.8% of the mothers, whose average age was 28.49 ± 5.04, had their first birth, 62.5% of the mothers were feeding their babies with breast milk, and 65.8% had regular sleep. The total mean score of the scales was 24.76 ± 5.15 for T-MBS, 81.19 ± 22.16 for CSS, and 16.11 ± 10.28 for the obsession scale. There was a statistically significant positive relationship between the maternal burnout and postpartum obsession scales and the cyberchondria severity scale.

Conclusion: In the present study, mothers in the postpartum period did not show signs of burnout or obsessive-compulsive behaviors in the care of their babies, and their cyberchondria severity scores were at a moderate level.