How do infant feeding method, sleeping location, and postpartum depression interact with maternal sleep quality?

• DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2023.08.017
• Publication Date: 2023-08-19T07:32:07Z
• Authors: Laura Newman; Hannah Thorne; Charlotte C Gupta; Madeline Sprajcer
• Keywords: Depression; Sleep

New mothers generally experience poor and/or disrupted sleep. A range of infant care and mental health factors may impact new mothers' sleep quality. cross-sectional online survey was completed by a sample 101 Australian with children under 12 months (M = 5.52 months, SD 3.29 months) to examine the relationship between feeding method, sleeping location, postpartum depression maternal Subjective quality measured using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS). Overall, experienced subjective quality, high average PSQI scores, above cut-off 5 9.63, 4.07). The majority did not depression, an EPDS score below 11 (8.66, 5.20). Mothers who breastfed their infants significantly better than bottle-fed, medium effect size (ηp2 0.458). differ based on location. Poor significant predictor depression. While common in this mothers, study demonstrated that breastfeed slightly other methods. Further research into, services for education advocation of, will be beneficial both clinicians.