Screening for postpartum depression in mothers of hospitalized infants in the acute care setting
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Postpartum depression (PPD) affects approximately 20% of all mothers within the first year postpartum, yet nearly half remain undiagnosed (CDPH, 2018; NIMH, 2021; Sudhanther et al., 2019). While PPD screening is established in obstetric offices and postpartum floors, there are limited recommendations and data on screening mothers of hospitalized infants. This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to initiate PPD screening in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and pediatric unit, utilizing the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The project sought to increase screening rates and enhance education on PPD by 5%, and to improve case management referrals by 2%. Participants were grouped into time intervals (T1 and T2) to evaluate change and post-intervention analysis was conducted. Results indicated a 26.7% increase in screening and education between timepoints, will all positively screened mothers referred for follow-up and connection to resources. While the small sample size limited statistical significance, findings suggest that integrating PPD screenings into acute neonat! al and pediatric settings are both feasible and beneficial. This QI project underscores the need for standardized screening protocols and increased awareness. Continued research is necessary to improve maternal mental health and infant outcomes. Future recommendations include embedding EPDS in the electronic medical records, automatically generated scoring and routine rescreening for mothers of long-term hospitalized infants.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.