Background and Objective: Improving mental health literacy is a major strategy for reducing the burden of mental health disorders. Mental health literacy of postpartum depression is defined as knowledge and beliefs about postpartum depression that help recognize, control, or prevent it. The present study aimed to explore the effect of an educational intervention on improving mental health literacy of postpartum depression in pregnant women in eastern Iran.Material and Methods: The present quasi-experimental study was conducted on pregnant women in Sarayan city. The data collection instrument was a standard mental health literacy questionnaire on postpartum depression. Sixty pregnant women who met the inclusion criteria were selected from healthcare centers, and were randomly divided into an intervention and a control group. The educational intervention was held in six ۴۵-minute educational sessions for the intervention group. The questionnaire was completed before the intervention and one month after childbirth by the intervention and control groups. The data were entered into SPSS۱۸ and analyzed at a significance level of ۰.۰۵.Results: Before the intervention, the two groups did not have a statistically significant difference in terms of the mean score of mental health literacy along different dimensions (p>۰.۰۵). However, the mean scores of all dimensions of mental health literacy (i.e., Ability to recognize postpartum depression, Knowledge of risk factors and causes, Knowledge and beliefs of self-care activities, Knowledge about professional help available, Beliefs about professional help available, Attitudes which facilitate recognition of postpartum depression and appropriate help-seeking and Knowledge of how to seek information related to postpartum depression) increased significantly in the intervention group one month after childbirth compared to the pretest (p<۰.۰۵).Conclusion: Based on results of this study, educational interventions have the potential to improve mental health literacy of postpartum depression. Current evidence is limited by few studies directly measured postpartum depression literacy. More research is needed to properly assess the effect of health literacy interventions on mental health literacy of pregnant women.
