A quasi experimental study to appraise the perceived competency and effect of emotional freedom technique on postpartum blue among postnatal mothers in selected hospitals, Chennai

Background: A mother's joy begins as new life is stirring inside; when a tiny heart beat is heard for the first time, and a playful kick remains her that she is never alone. The delivery of a child yields excitement and joy, and the new mother is expected to welcome her new responsibility with happiness. For some, this new responsibility may not be an enjoyable experience because of ignorance or mishandling of postpartum psychological health. Postnatal mothers may struggle with their mental health as they transit to motherhood. Aim: To assess the effect of Emotional Freedom Technique on level of Postpartum blues.Material and methods: Quasi experimental pertest post-test with control group design was adopted and the samples consist of 30 postnatal mothers. Edinburgh postnatal depression scale was used to assess the postpartum blue level.Results: Only 13.3% of the postnatal mothers had adequate perceived competency in terms of knowledge regarding postpartum blue. In experimental group, 13 postnatal mothers who had moderate level of postpartum blue during pertest improved after implementation of the Emotional freedom technique where majority 66.7% of the mothers came to mild level. There is a significant change in the postpartum blue between pertest and post-test among experimental group which is statistically proved by that 't' value of 5.72 (Df=14, table value=2.14 at 0.05 level of significance).