Prevalence of Antenatal Depression in a Teaching Hospital South/South Nigeria.

Background: Over 30 million people living in Africa suffer from depression which also contributes to global burden of diseases with a steady rise in prevalence, affecting all groups, including pregnant women. Factors which account for the psychological effects of pregnancy on mothers include; maternal age, planned pregnancy, previous experiences, spouse support, and partner violence. These risk factors may lead to antenatal depression which endangers the mother and the pregnancy. To safeguard mothers from depression during pregnancy, these factors need to be determined. Objective: To determine the prevalence, risk factors and predictors of antenatal depression. Methods: Pregnant women attending antenatal care, who met the study inclusion criteria were interviewed and screened for depression using the risk factor and socio-demographic questionnaire and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Data obtained was fed into the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23.0 and cross-tabulation of the relevant variables obtained using chi-squared and t-test. P values <0.05 were statistically significant. Results: Of 500 respondents, 158 (31.6%) had depression. Risk factors of cohabiting with spouse, lack of financial support from spouse, fight with spouse, threat to life, history of still birth and child health challenges were determined, four of which turned out to be predictors of antenatal depression (AD). Conclusion: The high prevalence of 31.6% of antenatal depression calls for a review of obstetrics practice to include screening and diagnosis for antenatal depression. Keywords: Antenatal depression, socio-demographic factors, EPDS, Obstetrics risk factors, social support, predictors.