Psychological assessment among immigrant and Spanish women during the postpartum period in Spain

Abstract

Objective: to describe whether there were differences in sociodemographic, obstetric, perinatal and psychological variables between immigrant women and native-born women in Spain during the first 24 h after delivery.

Background: The immediate postpartum period is a critical time when physical and psychological disorders are likely to occur. Immigrant women have, in general, poor perinatal and psychological results during this time.

Methods: One hundred and three women at the Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital (Granada, Spain) were divided into two groups: 50 Spanish and 53 immigrants. The instruments used were the Life Orientation Test, the Stress Vulnerability Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Sociodemographic and obstetric data were obtained from the healthcare providers reports.

Results: During the postpartum period, the immigrant women had higher mean scores on the following subscales: interpersonal sensitivity (F(1,102) = 4.06; p < 0.05); depression (F(1,102) = 7.24; p < 0.01); phobic anxiety (F(1,102) = 4.83; p < 0.05), paranoid ideation (F(1,102) = 7.20; p < 0.01); and psychoticism (F(1,102) = 4.04; p < 0.05). When considering age, education, profession, job situation, immigrant status of the partner and duration of time in Spain as covariates, differences between groups were significant on obsessive–compulsiveness (F(1,102) = 5.37; p < 0.05) and depression (F(1,102) = 6.89; p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Immigrant women are in need of more psychological and emotional support from their families, midwives and the rest of healthcare providers than are native Spaniards immediately after delivery.

Keywords:

• Immigration
• postnatal care
• psychosocial factors