Prevalence of Postpartum Depression Among Lactating Mothers of Infant Twins and Singletons in Igboora, Oyo State, Nigeria
Abstract Objectives The objective to assess the prevalence of postpartum depression among lactating mothers of infant twins and singletons in Igboora, Oyo state, Nigeria. Methods The cross-sectional study was carried out in Igboora, a twinning community in south western Nigeria. Snowballing technique was used to reach 85 and 90 mothers of twins and singletons respectively. Interview based questionnaires were administered to the mothers to assess their breastfeeding practices and Edingburgh Postpartum Depression Scale was used to assess depression. Analysis was done using IBM-SPSS version 21.0. Student T-test was be used to compare the mean score of postpartum depression for single mothers and twin mothers at p < 0.05. Results About 6 out of every ten respondents (55.6% for singleton; 64.7% for twins) had received previous education on breastfeeding and the main major source of information was hospital settings (55.6% for mothers of singletons and 61.2% for twin mothers). Twenty-seven and 36.5% of mothers of singletons and twins respectively indicated to have received adequate support from their spouses and mothers-in-law. Less than half (44.8% singletons; 44.7% twins) of the mothers-initiated breastfeeding within one hour of birth while majority of the mothers (94.4% for singletons and 83.5% for twins) introduced colostrum to their babies, just about half; 51.1% and 55.3% of the mothers of singletons and twins respectively introduced prelacteal feed to their children. Overall, breastfeeding was found to be better practiced among mothers of singletons than mothers of twins with less than half (48.2%) of the mothers reporting good breastfeeding practices while about two-thirds (64.4%) of the mothers of singletons had good breastfeeding practices. Mothers of singletons were more depressed than the mothers of twins (21.1% and 11.8% respectively). However, no significant association was observed between postpartum depression and breastfeeding practices among both the mothers of singletons and twins in this study. Conclusions Increased prevalence of postpartum depression was recorded among the respondents, mothers of singletons are more likely to have postpartum depression than mothers of twins. Funding Sources There was no funding for this study.