WOMEN IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF POST-COLONIAL BENIN, 1970 - 2010

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to discover the knowledge, attitude and practice of postpartum depression among women attending postnatal clinic in University of Benin Teaching Hospital. To achieve the purpose of this study, three (3) research questions were raised and literature related to the study were also reviewed. The descriptive survey research design was used for this study and the population consist of one hundred and fifty (150) postnatal women attending University of Benin Teaching Hospital. A total of one hundred and five (105) women were selected using convenience sampling technique. The instrument used for the data collection was a self constructed questionnaire administered by the researcher. The questionnaire was validated by the project supervisor with the aid of two other lecturers in the department of health, safety and environmental education. The internal consistency method-Cronbach Alpha was used to establish the reliability of the questionnaire by splitting the scores of the respondents into two halves and a reliability coefficient value of 0.78 was obtained. A total of one hundred and five (105) questionnaires were administered to the sample respondents and data collected was analyzed using frequency counts and percentage. The results of the study shows that the respondents have low knowledge of postpartum depression and most of the women had positive attitude towards postpartum depression. The results of the study also revealed that majority of the respondents had never been screened for postpartum depression this also contributed to those low knowledge of PPD. Based on the findings its is recommended that there should be awareness programs on postpartum depression for healthcare providers, women of childbearing age, spouses and family members to improve knowledge and early detection of postpartum depression.