Nursing Research

Anne Nans, MS, PNP, RN, IBCLC
Class of 2007, MS Degree

Higher Postpartum Depression Rate Found for Mothers with Military Deployed Partners

"A high percentage of the patients I see — about 40 percent — are from military families"

One in 10 women suffers from postpartum depression. If the spouse or partner is on military deployment, the mother has a one in four chance of experiencing postpartum depression, according to a new study.

"The findings were both surprising and disappointing," said the study's author, Anne Nans, a pediatric nurse practitioner and 2007 master's degree in nursing Upstate graduate. Her two-tiered study investigated breastfeeding versus formula feeding, as well as spouse deployment versus nondeployment in postpartum depression.

"I found a huge increase — over 26 percent — of those mothers with deployed partners who indicated symptoms for depression after giving birth. Of the mothers with nondeployed partners, about 16 percent were depressed, based on questionnaire scoring. The overall depression rate for the new mothers surveyed was about 18 percent," said Nans. Ninety-seven mothers of healthy term babies completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale between four to 12 weeks postpartum.

An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Nans had anticipated finding some physiological protection against depression for women who were breastfeeding as previous studies had shown. Instead, the study discovered no defense (or no significant statistical difference) against depression from breastfeeding compared to formula-feeding mothers. Factoring in spouse deployment — 23 out of the 97 surveyed — the study
showed a significant increase in depression. Nans is a former Navy nurse herself, stationed three years at Camp Pendleton and three years at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. She is originally from Texas and is married to Colonel Clayton Nans, a retired marine. A mother of triplets, two sons and a daughter, now 9, and a third son, 7, her research is close to her heart and professional interest in lactation consulting.

She currently resides in Sackets Harbor near the Fort Drum military base and works at Pediatric Associates, a pediatric private practice in Watertown. Before finishing the nurse practitioner program at Upstate, she worked on the maternity floor at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown. "A high percentage of the patients at Samaritan Medical Center — about 40 percent," Nans noted, "are from military families."

"My study reinforces the fact that a significant segment of mothers experience postpartum depression, especially when the other parent is absent. Also implicit is that follow up and intervention are necessary postpartum for affected mothers."