Care needs and nursing diagnoses of expectant mothers with depression: descriptive study Necesidades de cuidado y diagnósticos de enfermería en gestantes con depresión: estudio descriptivo

Abstract

Objective: Describe the needs and nursing diagnosis of expectant mothers with depression. Materials and method: Descriptive, retrospective, cross-sectional study. The convenience non-probabilistic sampling was made with 55 expectant mothers, hospitalized between January 2013 and December 2018. The information was collected through the application of two questionnaires: the first was built considering the objectives and the operationalization of the variables related to the demographic, obstetrics, and psychiatric information; the second one with the care needs, taken from the M. Gordon’s assessment guideline and symptomatology from DSM-5. Absolute and relative frequencies were extracted from the qualitative variables, median and IQR for age. Results: The most frequent nursing diagnoses were the following: deterioration of mood regulation 67.3%; suicide risk 56.4%; hopelessness 52.7%; acute pain 50.9%; insomnia 50.9%. The most frequent care needs were: mood swings 67.3%; suicidal behavior 56.4%; negative perspective of one-self and the future 52.7%; pain 50.9%. Conclusions: According to alteration patterns, care needs and the diagnoses, the mental component was the most affected health component for these women; it was found that the patients have a high tendency of drug consumption, unwillingness to take the psychiatric treatment and more attitudes related to: suicidal behavior, hopelessness, a negative perspective of the future, and pain, showing that depression is highly present in expectant mothers.