Objective:

This study investigated the influence of the birth type to mothers earlypostpartum emotional emotional status.

Methods:

SCL-90-R psychological test was performed in 50 patients who had cesarean section and 50 patients who had vaginal delivery. SCL- 90- R consist of ten sub-scales: somatization, obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, psychoticism, and a category of additional items. The subscale scores of the scale are obtained by dividing the score values of the answers given to the relevant items by the number of items forming the subscale. The points of all 90 items (0–4 points per item) were added and divided by 90 to obtain the general score. Patients with scores above 1 were considered to have a psychological problem. All test subtitles and total test values were statistically compared with the Student’s-t test and Mann–Whitney U test.

Results:

The average age of patients who had cesarean section was higher than that of those who had vaginal delivery (25.68±5.02 years versus 28.26±6.20 years). There were no statistical differences in terms of habits, social security, obstetric history, number of pregnancies, gestational age, labor findings, first- and fifth-minute Apgar scores, findings in newborns, and postpartum complications. The score of all subdivisions and the general score of SCL90-R were significantly higher in mothers who had cesarean section (p<0.001 in all). Average age, longer hospitalization period and less hemoglobin levels were higher in mother who had cesarean section (p=0.024, p<0.001, and p<0.001, respectively).

Conclusion:

In studies to reduce high cesarean rates , the psychological status of the mother as well as the medical conditions should be taken into consideration.

Keywords: SCL-90-R, early postpartum emotional state method of delivery, vaginal delivery, cesarean section