Objective To explore the effect of family care and personality traits on postpartum depression, and the intermediate effect of social support.

Methods A total of 440 puerperas who experienced hospital delivery at several hospitals in Suzhou, Anhui Province were recruited from Jun, 2021 to Aug, 2023. Questionnaires including content of general information, Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale (EPDS), Family Adaptation Partnership Growth Affection Resolve Index (APGAR), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS) were distributed to them. A total of 415 valid questionnaires were collected. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the association between postpartum depression and personality traits, family function and social support. Bootstrap test was used to analyze mediating effect for social support.

Results Among 415 cases, 140 cases had postpartum depression scores ≥ 10 points, the incidence of postpartum depression was 33.73%. The incidence of postpartum depression was 17.59% among primiparas and 16.14% among multiparas. The average postpartum depression score of those 140 cases was (12.95 ± 2.04), which was negatively correlated with the scores of APGAR, SSRS, and EPQ-E (P < 0.05) and positively correlated with the scores of EPQ-P, EPQ-N and EPQ-L (P < 0.05). The result of Bootstrap test showed that the mediating effect of social support on the association between family function and postpartum depression was − 0.047 (95% CI: − 0.107 − − 0.010), accounting for 5.9% of total effect.

Conclusion Postpartum depression is closely associated with women’s personality traits, family care and social support. Social support plays a partial mediating role on the association between family care and postpartum depression. Clinical workers should pay attention to emotional changes of pregnant women and actively carry out health education on social support and family care issues.