Characteristics of Jordanian depressed pregnant women: a comparison study

Accessible summary Jordanian women reported double the rates of antenatal depression in comparison with developed countries. Further, no studies have been conducted here in Jordan that compares sociodemographic characteristics of women who have antenatal depression symptoms and women who do not have such symptoms. The results of this study revealed that Jordanian pregnant women who were smokers, less educated and those with high‐parity pregnancy had a high tendency towards antenatal depressive symptoms. Nurses and midwives need to work together to prevent and predict antenatal depression. They need to identify the women who are suffering from it and effectively help them to protect the next generation from its negative effects. Abstract The objective of this study is to investigate the differences between J ordanian depressed women and non‐depressed women in terms of their sociodemographic characteristics during their pregnancy. A convenience sample of 218 J ordanian pregnant women in their third trimester was selected for this study from three major G overnorates in J ordan ( A mman, I rbid and Z arqa), and the antenatal clinics of teaching hospitals ( J ordan U niversity H ospital and K ing A bdullah U niversity H ospital) were accessed to collect the data. A demographical sheet and the E dinburgh P ostnatal D epression S cale ( EPDS ) were used to collect data. There was a significant difference in EPDS scores between smokers and non‐smokers, primiparous and multiparous women, and also between women with secondary or lower education and those with diploma or higher education. Higher EPDS scores were classified as a ≥13 and lower EPDS scores as <13. However, there were no significant differences in the age, income and sleeping hours for women with higher EPDS scores compared with those with lower EPDS scores. This study showed that there are differences between pregnant women who had depression symptoms and pregnant women who did not have depression symptoms in relation to some sociodemographic variables (smoking status, education level and parity).