ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic has seen unprecedented restrictions on face-to-face healthcare encounters. This has led to an increase in the use of online healthcare resources by service users. Pregnant women have always been a group particularly motivated to seek out information online. The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of mothers who were using an existing National Health Service social media based antenatal support service during the early stages of the UK COVID-19 lockdown.DesignA short online survey with four closed questions (scale response) and one open-ended free-text question was given to pregnant women who were using the online service 3 weeks after the start of the UK lockdown. Descriptive statistics are used to present the closed question data. Thematic analysis was applied to the free-text responses.Results320 women were sent the survey. 156 completed it (49% response rate). Participants provided information relating to frequency of use, information access, relative level of antenatal care and ease of contact. 105 (66%) participants completed the open-ended free-text question. Key themes to emerge related to: (1) information provision and verification; (2) managing and reducing feelings of isolation; (3) service specific issues, including crisis adaptations; and (4) impact on routine care.ConclusionsThe study suggests that that pregnant mothers found a social media based approach well positioned to provide antenatal care and support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seeking to promote methodological innovation in fuel poverty research, this paper reflects on the use of a novel qualitative psychological approach known as interpretative phenomenological analysis. The benefits and limitations of this methodological approach are discussed within a detailed account of findings from a small-scale study undertaken in Salford, UK. Contributing to an existing gap in the existing evidence base, the research focused on the lived experience of young adult households: a demographic group identified as being disproportionately more likely to be living in fuel poverty compared to any other age group. Three emergent themes were identified: 'establishing the independent home', 'threats to home comfort' and 'energy and coping'. Multiple references to conditions typical of fuel poverty were disclosed, such as: self-disconnection, energy debts, cold homes and unrelenting challenges with damp and laundry practices. 'Vulnerability' mostly consumed narratives of past experience, with participants discussing the present and future with positive affectivity. Implications for further research are explored, including the potential to more effectively target support by reframing current discourse away from one centred on 'vulnerability'.

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