Relação entre o tempo de contato pele-a-pele e a depressão pós-parto

Abstract

The objective of this article was to verify the relationship between the length of stay in skin-to-skin contact with the symptoms of postpartum depression in mothers of preterm newborns with low birth weight in the periods before and after hospital discharge. This is a prospective, cohort study carried out at the Neonatal Unit of a Public Hospital in Minas Gerais, between October 2019 and March 2020. The sample consisted of 26 newborns weighing <1,800g and their mothers. The data referring to the time of skin to skin contact were recorded by the professionals of the sector and checked by the researchers. Sociodemographic and clinical information of the participants was collected through interviews with mothers and medical records. The Beck Depression Inventory was used to assess the symptoms of postpartum depression. To verify the association between variables related to skin-to-skin contact time and postpartum depression scores in the study phases, the Sperman test was used. The Wilcoxon test was used to analyze whether there were changes in the postpartum depression scores over time. No relationship was found between the onset, frequency and duration of skin-to-skin contact and the symptoms of postpartum depression in the analyzed periods. The results regarding postpartum depression scores over time also showed no statistically significant difference. Having only one child was associated with greater symptoms of depression in the pre-hospital discharge period. Further studies are needed to investigate the relationship between skin-to-skin contact and postpartum depression, especially in preterm infants, since there is no consensus in the literature on the dose-response effect of this care in clinical practice.