Maternal Perception of the Teen and Early Adult Mothers on the Postpartum Blues and Depression

When it comes to mental health and postpartum, postpartum blues and depression are common disorders that affect mothers and their infants.  This study aimed to compare and investigate the maternal perception of early adult and teen mothers experiencing postpartum blues and depression. A descriptive research design was utilized in this paper. Through purposive sampling, a total of 40 selected teen and adult mothers from Brgy. Sarmiento, Parang, Maguindanao del Norte, were respondents to the study. Modified Postpartum bonding questionnaire (PBQ) from Brekington et al (2001) and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) from Cox et al (1987) were used as tools to determine the maternal views of teen and early adult mothers on the postpartum blues and depression. Results revealed that the maternal perception of teen mothers on the postpartum bonding with their babies have an overall mean of 2.9 which denoted quite often that they have good postpartum bonding with their babies whereas, the adult mothers have a mean of 3.5 denotes very often which indicated that they have very positive postpartum bonding behavior with their babies yet both groups experienced postpartum blues. Moreover, there was a quite significant difference between the two groups of mothers (t = 2.0134, df = 46, p-value = 1.679 < 0.05). This means that early adult mothers have higher positive postpartum bonding behavior with their babies compared to teenage mothers. It also showed that the majority (70%) of the teen mothers experience depression whereas 30% of them are on suicidal thoughts. Contrarily, 50% of the early adult mothers did not experience depression and suicidal thoughts. Whereas, 30% of them have depression and 20% of them are on suicidal thoughts. The study concludes that early adult mothers have higher positive postpartum bonding behavior with their infants than teen mothers. Along with this, the majority of the teen mother experienced postpartum depression whereas most early adult mothers were less likely to experience depression and suicidal thinking.