Using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to Screen Pregnant Women

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Recommended: Postpartum depression investigation

Screening pregnant women for depression is part of routine antenatal care conducted by midwives at Nambour General Hospital. Depression screening occurs at the booking in appointment and again at 36 weeks gestation using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the usefulness of antenatal screening for depression using the EPDS. Current evidence will be considered and the role of midwives, in utilising a positive midwife-woman relationship while administering the EPDS, will be discussed. Evidence-based recommendations will be made regarding the future direction of antenatal depression screening in midwifery practice.

The strategy used to locate resources while researching the usefulness of the EPDS in pregnancy included searching Google Scholar, all databases available via CQUniversity library’s DISCOVER IT! search facility and sourcing articles referenced by authors of informative articles already sourced. Database searches were restricted to scholarly journals published between 2009 and 2014. Search terms included a combination of the following words and terms: Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, EPDS, antenatal depression, depression, pregnancy, depression screening and midwi* (truncated to search for midwives, midwifery and midwife). This search strategy resulted in ten recently published articles relevant to the topic.

Depression is not uncommon among pregnant women. Approximately one in five women experience depression during pregnancy (Marcus et al., 2003 cited in Jones, et al., 2012). Factors leading to depression during pregnancy include biological-psychological processes (Breedlove & Fryzelka, 2011), biochemical changes in the brain due to fluctuating hormone levels ...

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...rth, 25(1), pp. 23-28. doi: 10.1016/j.wombi.2011.03.001

Matthey, S., & Ross-Hamid, C. (2012). Repeat testing on the Edinburgh Depression Scale and the HADS-A in pregnancy: Differentiating between transient and enduring distress. Journal of Affective Disorders, 141(2), pp. 213-221. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2012.02.037

Rollans, M., Schmied, V., Kemp, L., & Meade, T. (2013). Digging over that old ground: an Australian perspective of women’s experience of psychosocial assessment and depression screening in pregnancy and following birth. BMC Women's Health, 13(1), pp. 18-32. doi: 10.1186/1472-6874-13-18

Thombs, B., Arthurs, E., Coronado-Montoya, S., Roseman, M., Delisle, V., & Leavens, A. et al. (2014). Depression Screening and Patient Outcomes in Pregnancy or Postpartum: A Systematic Review. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, pp. 1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2014.01.006

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