A Study to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Music Therapy on Postpartum Blues among Postnatal Mothers Admitted at Selected Hospitals in Kanyakumari District

Background of the study: Mood change in the early days of postpartum are particularly common. Postpartum blues are the common mental health problems during the early postpartum period. There are many alternative therapies to treat this. However, Music therapy is easy to perform without any risk and with minimal expenses it decreases the cortisol level in the blood stream which causes stress and leads to decrease in the postpartum blues. The aim of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of music therapy on postpartum blues among postnatal mothers admitted at selected hospitals in Kanyakumari district. Material and method: The research design adopted for this study is quasi experimental pre-test post-test control group design. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the samples. The tool used for data collection procedure was Am I blues? questionnaire by Skillman, N. (1996). The conceptual frame work of this study is based on sister Callista Roy’s Adaptation model. After the pre-test assessment of postpartum blues, the mother those who had moderate and severe level of postpartum blues were given music therapy given for 20 minutes per day for 5 days. Result: The study revealed that in pre-test most of the women, 53.33% in experimental group had severe postpartum blues and in control group half of them, (50%) had severe postpartum blues and other half of them had moderate postpartum blues. After music therapy it was surprising that 60% of them had low level of postpartum blues in experimental groups and only 40% of mothers had moderate level of postpartum blues. There was a significant reduction in mean post-test postpartum blues scores (MD=41.23., t=35.03., P<0.001) of the experimental group. The mean post-test postpartum blues score in experimental group was 25.26., lesser than that of the control group 64.10., (MD= 30.84., t= 11.70., P<0.001). Conclusion: Music therapy has found to be cost effective, noninvasive, non-pharmacological management used to reduce postpartum blues among postnatal mothers.