Sleep Quality, Fatigue, and Postpartum Depression of Mother at Six Months after Delivery

Purpose: This study was correlation study to identify the factors influencing sleep quality, fatigue, and postnatal de-pression inmothers who have given birth during the past 6months.Methods:The study was conducted using a survey with questionnaires to 329 mothers who visited E University Medical Center, or three local clinics located in D city, between August andOctober 2013. Collected data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 20.0 program.Results:Out of 329 subjects, 18.2 % showed that they had mild postnatal depression whereas 24.3 % had severe postnatal depression. Accordingly, 42.5 % reported having postnatal depression. Postnatal depression had a significant corre-lation with sleep hours after childbirth (r=-.16, p=.003), spousal support (r=-.28, p<.001), sleep quality (r=-.35, p<.001), physical fatigue (r=.66, p<.001), psychological fatigue (r=.69, p<.001), and neurosensory fatigue (r=.56, p<.001). Factors influencing postnatal depression include psychological fatigue, sleep quality, number of child births, and neurosensory fatigue, and these accounted for 53 % of postnatal depression.Conclusion:Results indicate that factors influencing postnatal depression involve psychological fatigue, sleep quality, number of child births, and neu-rosensory fatigue. Therefore for nursing intervention for postpartummothers, it is necessary to assess the level o