the effect of debriefing and brief cognitive-behavioral therapy on postpartum depression in traumatic childbirth: a randomized clinical trial

Background & aim: childbirth is a stressful event in women’s lives, and if a mother perceives it as an unpleasant event, it can influence her postpartum mental health. depression is a common mental disorder, which can has serious consequences depending on its severity. therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of debriefing and brief cognitive-behavioral therapy on postpartum depression in traumatic childbirth. methods: this clinical trial was performed on 179 mothers who experienced a traumatic childbirth and were admitted in postnatal ward of nohom dey hospital in torbat-e heydarieh, north east of iran in 2016. the subjects were randomly allocated into three groups, including two intervention groups of debriefing and brief cognitive-behavioral counseling and a control group. the intervention groups received appropriate counseling for 40-60 minutes in the first 48 postpartum hours and the control group received the routine postpartum care. edinburgh postnatal depression scale was used to evaluate postpartum depression 4-6 weeks and also three months after the intervention. post-traumatic stress symptoms in were compared in three groups using t-test, chi-square test, and repeated measures analysis of variance. results: no significant differences were observed between the mean depression scores of the two intervention groups and that of the control group 4-6 weeks after childbirth. however, three months after delivery, the mean depression scores of the two intervention groups was lower than the control group (p<0.001); there was no significant difference between the mean depression scores of the two intervention groups. conclusion: both methods of debriefing and brief cognitive-behavioral therapy could significantly reduce mean postpartum depression score in high-risk mothers. thus, these methods could be employed for early identification of depression, which in turn, lowers the rate of postpartum depression.