Problem Statement: “A study to evaluate the effectiveness of structured teaching program on post-partum psychiatric illness among Primi gravida mothers regarding knowledge and attitude in selected tertiary care hospital of the city”

Background of the Study: Psychiatric disorders during puerperium for first 3 months after delivery, the incidence of mental illness is high. Overall incidence is about 15–20%. Sleep deprivation, hormone elevation near the end of gestation and massive post-partum withdrawal contribute to the risk. High risk factors for post-partum mental illness:

Past history: Psychiatric illness, puerperal psychiatric illness.

Family history: Major psychiatric illness, marital conflict, poor social situation.

Present pregnancy: Young age, caesarean delivery, difficult labor, neonatal complications.

Others: Unmet expectations. Puerperal blues is a transient state of mental illness observed 4–5 days after delivery and it lasts for a few days. Nearly 50% of the postpartum women suffer from the problem. Manifestations are depression, anxiety, tearfulness, insomnia, helplessness and negative feelings toward the infant. No specific metabolic or endocrine abnormalities have been detected. But lowered tryptophan level is observed. It suggests altered neurotransmitter function. Treatment is reassurance and psychological support by the family members.

Materials and Method: The quasi experimental (one group pre-test post-test) design was adapted. The subject consisted of seventy-six subjects i.e. Primi gravida mothers. The nonprobability purposive sampling was used for selection of subjects. The content validity for research tool was done by various experts in the field of mental health and psychiatric field. The reliability for the tool was assessed by using test-retest method; Karl Pearson’s coefficient of correlation method. The reliability obtained for the knowledge section was 0.96 and for attitude section was 0.99.

Result: In pretest, 9.2% of the primigravida mothers had poor knowledge (Score 0-8), 88.2% of them had average knowledge (Score 9-16) and 2.6% of them had good knowledge (Score 17-25) regarding selected post-partum psychiatric illness.

In post-test, 19.7% of them had average knowledge (Score 9-16) and 80.3% of them had good knowledge (Score 17-25) regarding selected post-partum psychiatric illness.

In pretest, 86.8% of the primigravida mothers had negative attitude (Score 15-45) and 13.2% of them had positive attitude (Score 46-75) towards selected post-partum psychiatric illness.

In post-test, all of the primigravida mothers had positive attitude (Score 46-75) towards selected post-partum psychiatric illness. This indicates that the knowledge and attitude towards selected post-partum psychiatric illness among Primi gravida mothers improved remarkably after structured teaching program.