Postpartum depression (PPD) is one of the most common psychiatric disorders following delivery. This disorder makes serious problem for mother, child and family; therefore the identification of its risk factors is a must. One of these factors is kind of delivery. This study has been carried out to evaluate relationship between kind of delivery and PPD in kashan IRAN 2006.

This case control-study evaluated 460 women during 2-3 first months after delivery divided in 2 equal groups (depressed and normal group who were named case and control group respectively).The Beck standard test and a researcher-made questionnaire were used for evaluation. Some factors effecting on depression were omitted in the study and some mother age and birth order were matched in 2 groups. X2 and T test were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that there was no relationship between kind of delivery and PPD (p<0/574).In cases group; mild, moderate and severe depression were 42/2%, 47/4% and 10/4% and normal vaginal delivery (NVD) was53/9% and in control group NVD was 47/8%. In this matter, there was no significant relationship between mother education and job, neonatal gender, number of live birth and wanted or unwanted pregnancy with PPD.

There is no a relationship between kind of delivery and PPD.Its recommended to do cohort study and effect of other factors in PPD in much more sampling in future researches.

Postpartum depression, Normal vaginal delivery, Cesarean section