Postpartum hemorrhage and postpartum depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the postpartum depression (PPD) risk in women with postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and moderators.

METHODS

We identified observational studies of PPD rates in women with versus without PPH in Embase/Medline/PsychInfo/Cinhail in 09/2022. Study quality was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa-Scale. Our primary outcome was the odds ratio (OR, 95% confidence intervals [95%CI]) of PPD in women with versus without PPH. Meta-regression analyses included the effects of age, body mass index, marital status, education, history of depression/anxiety, preeclampsia, antenatal anemia and C-section; subgroup analyses were based on PPH and PPD assessment methods, samples with versus without history of depression/anxiety, from low-/middle- versus high-income countries. We performed sensitivity analyses after excluding poor-quality studies, cross-sectional studies and sequentially each study.

RESULTS

One, five and three studies were rated as good-, fair- and poor-quality respectively. In nine studies (k = 10 cohorts, n = 934,432), women with PPH were at increased PPD risk compared to women without PPH (OR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.13 to 1.44, p < 0.001), with substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 98.9%). Higher PPH-related PPD ORs were estimated in samples with versus without history of depression/anxiety or antidepressant exposure (OR = 1.37, 95%CI = 1.18 to 1.60, k = 6, n = 55,212, versus 1.06, 95%CI = 1.04 to 1.09, k = 3, n = 879,220, p < 0.001) and in cohorts from low-/middle- versus high-income countries (OR = 1.49, 95%CI = 1.37 to 1.61, k = 4, n = 9197, versus 1.13, 95%CI = 1.04 to 1.23, k = 6, n = 925,235, p < 0.001). After excluding low-quality studies the PPD OR dropped (1.14, 95%CI = 1.02 to 1.29, k = 6, n = 929,671, p = 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

Women with PPH had increased PPD risk amplified by history of depression/anxiety, whereas more data from low-/middle-income countries are required.