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The Association of Emergency Department Presentations in Pregnancy With Hospital Admissions

For Postnatal Depression (PND) Depression in the postnatal period is a major public health problem that can significantly impact the health of the whole family. This study investigated the impact of presenting to an Emergency Department during pregnancy on post-natal depression in women in New South Wales. The Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL) linked data from the NSW Emergency Department Data Collection (EDDC), the NSW Perinatal Data Collection (PDC) and the NSW Admitted Patients Data Collection (APDC). The study included all women who gave birth to their first child in NSW between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2010. Women who had subsequent births in the two years after the first birth were excluded. This study demonstrated that women’s hospital admissions for post-natal depression were associated with frequent ED presentations during pregnancy. Additionally, the study concluded that the reasons for this need to be explored further in a future study and that clinicians should consider the association between ED admission and a diagnosis of postnatal depression when planning a woman’s care.
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