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The Maternity Blues in Post-partum and Post-operative Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

V. Levy*
Affiliation:
Department of Midwifery Education, Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske), Truro, Cornwall TRI 3LJ

Extract

In order to establish whether the maternity blues is peculiar to the puerperium a selfrating blues questionnaire was administered to women after childbirth and after surgery. A period of dysphoria, similar in many respects to the maternity blues, was experienced by women post-operatively. The main difference between maternity and post-operative patterns of dysphoria seemed to lie in the timing of the blues, but on closer analysis many post-operative dysphoric symptoms peaked in a similar way to those in the maternity group. In the search for the cause of the maternity blues it may be helpful to study the same parameters in post-operative dysphoria.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1987 

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