Intervention Strategies for Addressing Postpartum Depression among First- Time Mothers at Mbagathi Hospital, Nairobi County, Kenya

Major depression is a common mental disorder affecting women in the postpartum period and isassociated with poor maternal and child outcomes. Studies around the world do indicate that one of the protectivefactors against PPD is psychosocial support. There is need to study about women's perceptions of sources or formsof psychosocial support following childbirth in Nairobi County. The study’s purpose was to determine PerinatalPsychosocial Support and Post-Partum Depression among the first-time mothers in Mbagathi hospital Lang’atasub-county, Nairobi, Kenya. The study focused on four objectives: To establish the prevalence of postpartumdepression among first-time mothers; To assess the levels of perinatal psychosocial support for mothers; To assessthe relationship between psychosocial support programs and postpartum depression and to establish theintervention strategies in addressing perinatal psychological support and postpartum depression among first-timemothers. The study was guided by two theories; cognitive behavioural therapy by Aaron Beck (1960) andInterpersonal theory by Harry Stack-Sullivan (1936). The study employed simple random sampling to selectparticipants for quantitative data and purposive sampling for qualitative data. Among the 60 nurses, 18 nurseswere chosen for qualitative data. The sampling formula developed by Yamane Taro (1967) was used to calculatethe size of the sample taken from 384 first time mothers. The sample size of 226 was met during data collection.Convergent parallel research design was adopted for the study. Edinburgh postnatal screening tool, PostpartumPsychosocial Support Questionnaire were applied to get quantitative data from the individuals. Quantitative datawas analysed using SPSS version 26. Findings showed that most mothers had high levels of PPD and reported toreceive low levels of psychosocial support. The findings also showed that an increase in psychosocial supportcorrelates with a decrease in PPD. The study recommends the following as a way forward for addressing postpartum depression: Capacity building for diagnosis, development of proper follow-up systems and communityawareness were the intervention strategies suggested by the nurse.