Cesarean Delivery and Mental Health

*Evangelia Antoniou, Eirini Orovou, Alexandros Papatrechas, Christiana Arampatzi and Panagiotis Eskitzis*

### **Abstract**

A delivery by cesarean can be a cause of development of mental illness, especially posttraumatic stress disorder or the profile of the disorder for a percentage of women. Despite the global increase in cesarean deliveries, there is a paucity of adequate research into posttraumatic stress disorder after cesarean delivery and at many times is associated with other mental disorders of the postpartum period. The purpose of this research is to identify if there is a link between the type of cesarean delivery and posttraumatic stress disorder among postpartum women. Our sample consisted of 162 women who underwent a cesarean section in a public University Hospital in Greece and consented to participate in the study. The results show a high prevalence of postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (31.7%) and profile postpartum posttraumatic stress disorder (14.3%) in women after emergency cesarean delivery with additional risk factors of preterm delivery, inclusion in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, lack of support from the partner, and lack of breastfeeding.

**Keywords:** cesarean delivery, emergency cesarean section, elective cesarean section, posttraumatic stress disorder, postpartum period, mental health
