Sedigheh Abdollahpour

Introduction: Implementation of the baby’s nine instinctive stages as a sacred hour after birth is very effective in starting breastfeeding. About half of newly delivered mothers have reported a traumatic childbirth experience that is associated with mental health problems. The present study aimed to examine the effect of the sacred hour on the depression in traumatic childbirths Methods: In this clinical trial, 84 mothers who, had experienced a traumatic childbirth and randomly allocated into the intervention (n = 42) and control (n = 42) groups. The intervention group received sacred hour (baby’s nine instinctive responses), but the control group received routine care. Postnatal Depression was evaluated as primary outcome at 2 week, 4-6 week and 3 month intervals after the delivery. Data were analyzed using t test, chi-square test and the repeated measures analysis of variance Results: Results showed that the marginal total mean scores of depression in the intervention and control groups were 7.5 ±0.41 and 9.6 ± 0.41; therefore, the mean difference between the groups was significant (P<0.01).Conclusions: Implementation of the sacred hour is recommended as a preventive approach to reduce the postnatal depression in women with a traumatic childbirth experience

The sacred hour, traumatic childbirth, postnatal depression, breastfeeding