The Role of Social Support for Mothers with Depression Symptoms in the Postpartum Period

A mother who just gave birth needs to psychological support from her closest people. Lack of support from the closest people triggers her emotions that lead to depression. This study aims to determine the relationship between social support and postpartum depression. The analysis used Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) 5 data in 2014. The samples were all mothers aged 15 years old and above who married and had babies aged 2-24 weeks. The independent variables included the presence of a spouse, the presence of other relatives, the participation of the mother in the social gathering, and the characteristics of the mother (age, education and occupation). Data were from 593 mothers who had complete variables using multiple logistic regression analysis. The analysis showed that the absence of a husband had a significant effect on postpartum depression (p-value = 0.001; OR = 2.81). Both the presence of other relatives and the maternal age are confounding variables for postpartum maternal depression. Mothers who did not stay with their partners had a risk of depression 2.81 times higher than those who did. It was controlled by the presence of other relatives and the age of the mother. Postpartum mothers have to be accompanied by her partner during babysitting.