Knowledge on postpartum depression among midwives and nurses: a systemic review

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a form of non-psychotic disorder that develops after childbirth with negative consequences for physiological, social and psychological development of the children. The global prevalence of PPD today equals approximately 17.22%. However, almost one half of all cases remain undetected. Healthcare providers can help to reduce the prevalence of PPD by identifying and educating women about the risks and treatment of PPD. The review is the first Russian-language study of systematic selection and qualitative synthesis of the studies in the field of nursing staff knowledge about PPD published from January 2000 to November 2020. The search was conducted in such eligible databases as MEDLINE, PsychINFO, EMBASE, Cinahl, eLIBRARY using the keywords “postpartum depression”, “knowledge”, “detection of postpartum depression”. As a result of the search, it was revealed that knowledge on postpartum depression was superficial in over one half of the midwives and nurses participating in the reviewed studies (n=1777). This result indicates the need to develop and implement training programmes for prevention of postpartum depression among medical personnel. The small amount of unique results underlines the need for further research on the knowledge of postpartum depression among midwives and nurses