A DEPRESSÃO PÓS-PARTO NA PERSPECTIVA DE MÃES UNIVERSITÁRIAS

Abstract

Introduction: For every 100 university students, about 15 to 25 present some kind of psychiatric disorder during academic education. In Brazil, postpartum depression affects 10% to 15% of women with signs and symptoms that begin at some point during the first twelve months after childbirth, with the highest incidence between the fourth and eighth weeks. Objective: to analyze the knowledge of university student mothers about postpartum depression. Material and method: This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach, conducted with 16 students from a Federal University in the central-west region of Brazil. For data collection, the application of a semi-structured interview scenario was chosen. For text analysis the method of Descending Hierarchical Classification was chosen with the help of the software IRaMuTeQ, and for content analysis the technique proposed by Bardin was adopted. The draft of this study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee under opinion No. 5.686.377. Results: From the Descending Hierarchical Classification emerged four categories: “Knowledge of university mothers about post-partum depression”, “Mother’s experience and factors associated with post-parental depression,” “Feelings experienced by the university mother” and “Confrontation strategies”. Conclusion and implications: It was found that the knowledge of university mothers is poor, pointed out feelings such as guilt and deep sadness, as well as the lack of support network as an important risk factor for postpartum depression. The importance of health professionals in early detection of signs and symptoms, in health education with the aim of informing, raising awareness and promoting maternal and child health is highlighted.