Effects of Husband Involvement in Prenatal Care on Couples' Intimacy and Postpartum Blues in Primiparous Women: A Quasi-Experimental Study.

The study used convenience sampling and assigned participants without randomisation, so pre-existing differences between couples could explain the results. The main researcher, health centre staff, and participants were not blinded, which can affect self-reported intimacy and postpartum blues. Only 33 women in the intervention group and 36 women in the control group remained for analysis, and two couples withdrew because the husband was absent from routine prenatal care sessions. The intervention combined routine prenatal care with the husband present and WhatsApp education, so the contribution of either component cannot be separated. Face-to-face education was suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the result reflects a virtual format that may not transfer to in-person care. Postpartum blues was measured once at one week postpartum, and couples' intimacy was measured before intervention and two weeks postpartum, so the timing may not capture later mood or relationship changes. The study did not test postpartum depression, and the correlation between intimacy and postpartum blues was not significant, so it cannot show that lower blues was caused by greater intimacy.

No funding or conflicts-of-interest statement is included in the article text; the supplied publication types list non-U.S. government research support.

Do not conclude that husband involvement alone prevents postpartum blues or increases intimacy. The intervention combined routine prenatal care with the husband present and WhatsApp education, participants were not randomly assigned, and the final intimacy comparison was not significant, so the effect of any single component cannot be separated.