ABSTRACT
Objective
The objective of this work is to explore whether the relationship between pain after delivery and postpartum depression is increased or decreased by the use of religion as a coping strategy (moderation).
Methods
A longitudinal cohort study was conducted. The sample was evaluated on three occasions: third trimester of pregnancy (religious coping), after birth (pain severity) and four months after delivery (postpartum depression). Participants were 122 women (mean age = 31.29; SD = 4.9: range = [22, 42 years]) with low obstetric risk.
Results
Both pain severity and religious coping contributed to postpartum depression (r = .20, p = .029 and r = .28, p = .04, respectively). Religious coping exacerbated the relationship between pain after delivery and postpartum depression (B = −0.11, t = −2.48, p = .014, [−0.20, −0.02]). Depression was highest in participants using religious coping irrespective of pain severity levels.
Conclusion
These findings support the importance of person-environment interaction studies and provide new evidence on the deleterious role of religious coping in the well-being of women after childbirth.
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by the Health Research Fund (Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias, FIS), grant number PI07/0571 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain). Suso-Ribera, Carlos also received support from the Jaume I University to conduct the present work (Reference E-2019–06).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).