Abstract
The Psychological prenatal program (PNP) is a complementary practice to traditional prenatal toward greater humanization of the gestational process, and aims to prevent potentially adverse situations during pregnancy and postpartum. The objective of the research was to investigate the effectiveness of the PNP in preventing postpartum depression (PPD) in high risk pregnant women in a public hospital in Brasilia. Action research methodology was chosen. The survey was conducted with 10 high-risk pregnant women: 05 of them participated in the PNP held in that maternity (group A) and 05 did not (group B). The instruments used were: gestational profile, puerperal profile, evaluative questionnaire, sessions and materials produced in the PNP group, Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventory (BDI, BAI) and COX Scale. This was a multi-methodological approach. The results were compared between the two groups and it was found that both groups of participants were vulnerable to develop PPD; however, only those in the control group (group B) showed PPD. These findings suggest that prenatal psychological factors associated with protection present in the history of pregnant women may help to prevent PPD. It is argued that psychological assistance during pregnancy, through the use of PNP, is a psycoprophylactic important tool that should be implemented as a public policy at health services and prenatal care.
Psychological Prenatal; Postpartum Depression; Psychoprophylaxys; High-risk Pregnancy
