Coping with the stress of motherhood: cognitive and defence style of women with postnatal depression

This study investigated cognitive and defence styles of women experiencing postnatal depression. Women diagnosed with postnatal depression were recruited while inpatients at mother–baby units in Melbourne, Australia. A comparison control group was recruited from Maternal and Child Health Centres. Mothers took part in structured interviews and completed psychometric questionnaires when their infants were 3 months old, with a follow-up at 24 months. Women with postnatal depression used different cognitive and defence styles to non-depressed women 3 months after the birth of their baby. Unlike non-depressed women, depressed women tended to use more irrational cognitions and less mature defence styles. Their locus of control indicated a common belief that ‘powerful others’ had control of their lives. This trend was stable over time, when the majority of women had recovered from their depression at 24 months even when ongoing depressive symptoms were controlled for statistically. By contrast, certain cognitive and defence styles appeared linked with the depressive episode. The study paints a profile of women with postnatal depression that is consistent with cognitive and psychodynamic theories of depression, suggesting certain characteristics render some women psychologically vulnerable to stressors in the postnatal period, while others are specific to the depressive state itself. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.