Effectiveness Of Happy Mom Interventions To Control Perinatal Depression

Abstract

Perinatal depression in Indonesia is like an iceberg phenomenon. The results of the research focus more on postpartum depression which has an incidence of 10-20% in the maternal. Perinatal depression that occurs from the prenatal period can develop and continue until the postpartum period, even suicidal behavior or killing the baby. In health services for pregnant women up to postpartum, there is no specific policy or standard of care related to the treatment of maternal depression. The impact is large, but there is no standard nursing intervention to manage it. This study aims to identify the effectiveness of Happy Mom interventions on the prevention of perinatal depression. The Happy Mom Intervention is an intervention package that contains screening since pregnancy, education about preparing for motherhood starting from preparation for childbirth, maternal care after childbirth, newborn care, and about perinatal depression for 4 weeks, followed by peer group intervention in the postpartum period for 4 weeks. The control group received only standard care from the hospital. This study used the design of Quasy Experiment pre-test and post-test with control group. The study was conducted in four health services in the city of Bekasi, Indonesia, for 8 weeks starting from 34 weeks gestation to 1 month postpartum. The research started from early November 2023 and was completed by the end of February 2024. The research sample consisted of 88 respondents in the third trimester of pregnancy in the experimental group and 88 respondents in the control group. The results of the Paired T-test statistical test showed that there was a significant difference between the mean score of Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale pre and posttest of the experimental group (p-value: 0.01<0.05) and the statistical test of the Independent T-test showed that there was a difference in EPDS scores between the experimental group and the control group after the intervention (p-value: 0.01<0.05) with the conclusion that the Happy Mom Intervention was effective in overcoming perinatal depression. The characteristics of respondents that affected the incidence of perinatal depression included education level, employment status, socio-economic and history of domestic violence. In addition to the EPDS score, this study also shows the influence of education on the level of mothers' knowledge. Happy Mom interventions can be implemented easily, effectively and efficiently in pregnant women's health services with early screening, education on motherhood preparation and increasing social support through peer groups. Happy Mom can be used as one of the intervention options to manage perinatal depression.