Assessing the Prevalence of Maternal Mental Health Disorders Between Six Weeks and Six Months Postpartum—A Scoping Review

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) and other perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) are of critical importance in the postpartum period. However, they remain under-researched beyond the initial six weeks postpartum, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The aim of this review was to document the global prevalence of PPD and related PMAD symptoms from six weeks to six months postpartum. Methods: A clinically-oriented search strategy was used to assess peer-reviewed articles published between 2019 and 2024 in PubMed, Embase, and CINHAL. Studies were screened by two independent reviewers for inclusion if they presented primary data around the prevalence of PPD and/or related PMADs from six weeks to six months postpartum (inclusive). Key elements (e.g., country, PMADs measured, measurement interval, prevalence rate) were extracted using Covidence and analyzed in StataBE. Results: Most of the 80 included studies were from high-income and middle-income countries (92.50%) and only measured PPD during the six-to-eight week postpartum interval (53.75%). The median prevalence rates for symptoms of all disorders and PPD were 13.20% and 16.00%, respectively. Rates of PPD symptoms ranged from 0.00% to 76.60% and were most often measured with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Cut-off scores used for the EPDS ranged from 9 to 14 with a median of 11, but they were reported inconsistently. Conclusions: The median prevalence rate (16.00%) of PPD symptoms in this study is consistent with rates found in other studies, indicating that PPD persists beyond the immediate postpartum period. However, this study identified the need for more comparable prevalence data: from LMICs, focusing beyond six-to-eight weeks postpartum, and including disorders other than PPD. Future systematic reviews and qualitative analyses are needed to explore PMAD prevalence rates with more rigor and culturally sensitive concepts.