Working mothers are at higher risk of postpartum depression due to sleep deprivation, social demands to care for babies, and difficulty engaging in health promotion activities due to the demands of work and home. As one of the largest causes of disease burden in the world due to the disability it brings, depression is one of the most costly health conditions for employers. In this sense, the improvement of maternity leave policies could be a promising strategy to be implemented at the organizational, regional and national levels to improve the mental health of mothers.

Aim:

To review the available evidence on the association between the characteristics of maternity leave policies and postpartum depression and the barriers to the implementation of such policies.

Study design:

Systematic review.

Result:

We conducted a systematic review searching for randomized controlled trials, quasi-experimental, cohort or cross-sectional studies on five databases using search terms including maternity and parental leave and depression. We identified 500 articles and included 23 of those. Our findings showed that paid and longer maternity leaves tend to be associated with a reduction of postpartum depression symptoms in high-income countries. No studies explored the association between employment protection and postpartum depression.

Contact:

Liliana Hidalgo, BA, MSc

liliana.hidalgo.p@upch.pe