Introduction: Women commonly experience fatigue during pregnancyand postpartum period. The fatigue may be lead to postpartum blues. This study was accomplished to investigate the relationship between maternal fatigue during pregnancy with postpartum blues.
Methods: This correlational study was conducted on 60 pregnant women who referred to health care centers in Mashhad, Iran, 2009. Cases were selected through a multi-stages sampling method. Fatigue was assessed by “Modified Fatigue Symptom Checklist” in 36^th and 37^th weeks of pregnancy and 5^th day after childbirth. Postpartum depression was evaluated by Edinburgh scale and interview at 5^th and 14^th days after child birth. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 14, Fisher's exact test, t-student and chi-square tests, lambda correlation and logistic regression tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: There were significant correlation between fatigue in 37^th week of pregnancy with postpartum blues in 5^thday (r=0.651, p=0.038) and 14^th day (r=1.000, p<0.0001) after childbirth. Also there was a significant correlation between fatigue in 36^th week of pregnancy and postpartum blues in 14^th day after childbirth (r=0.80, p=0.017). Logistic regression showed that postpartum blues was related to fatigue in 37^th week of pregnancy (p=0.015).
Conclusion: Fatigue in the last weeks of pregnancy is correlated with postpartum blues. Therefore it should be considered as a predicting factor of postpartum blues in routine prenatal care.