Stories That Empower Mothers and Postpartum Depression

Postpartum depression is a condition that occurs after birth and is difficult for mothers. Research shows that experiencing postpartum depression once increases the risk of experiencing it in subsequent pregnancies. At the same time, there are findings in the literature that pregnant women with postpartum depression experience mental difficulties, anxiety or depression during pregnancy. For this reason, this study aims to determine the risk of postpartum depression in pregnant women who are pregnant for the first time during pregnancy and to prevent this risk from occurring in the postpartum period. For this purpose, 'Stories to empower mothers' programme was created. This programme was created by researchers who are specialist psychiatric nurses, psychotherapists and art therapists and finalised with expert opinions. The programme consists of six sessions. The sessions are individual and are conducted online except for the first session. A storybook is formed at the end of the programme with the steps followed during the sessions. While creating this storybook, the themes of self-knowledge, defining the situation, identifying difficulties, identifying sources of help, discovering strengths and creating new coping strategies are addressed by using art therapy techniques. The aim of the study is to examine the effect of the 'Stories Empowering Mothers Programme' on the risk of postpartum depression in pregnant women experiencing their first pregnancy. The research is conducted in a non-randomised experimental follow-up research design. Pregnant women who meet the inclusion criteria of the study can be included in the experimental or control group according to their wishes. The data collection process in the study proceeds in the order of determining the target group, pre-test (24-32nd gestational week), post-test (after 5 weeks), follow-up one test (postpartum 2nd-4th week) and follow-up two tests (postpartum 10th-12th week). The data are obtained with the Case Report Form and Postpartum Information Form prepared by the researcher and EPDI, BDI and Brief Psychological Resilience Scale forms. Expert support will be obtained for statistical analyses. Ethics committee permission was obtained before the research was started to be conducted. The research is a doctoral thesis supported by TÜBİTAK.