Being in the shadow of the unknown — Swedish women’s lived experiences of pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic, a phenomenological study

Lindén, Karolina; Domgren, Nimmi; Zaigham, Mehreen; Sengpiel, Verena; Wessberg, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2021.09.007

Cited by 24 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In Cullen et al’s study [52] , 90.7% of mothers agreed that the hospital communicated information about visiting restrictions, but 57.5% of mothers in Sanders and Blaylock’s study [41] found the information provided to be unclear and confusing. Similarly, qualitative studies highlighted how the rapidly changing guidelines, varying hospital protocols, and unclear, inconsistent, conflicting or lack of information received on restrictions resulted in confusion, uncertainty, and anxiety among mothers [35] , [40] , [41] , [43] , [44] , [52] , [54] , [55] , [56] , [57] , [58] , [59] . In one study [60] , fathers were also unsure if they can support their partners given the changing restrictions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In one study [60] , fathers were also unsure if they can support their partners given the changing restrictions. Women also mentioned the lack of updates and information from the hospital on the risk of COVID-19 in pregnancy, COVID-19 symptoms and complications, and available health services, hence they had to be proactive in information seeking [40] , [43] , [52] , [54] , [55] , [56] . According to Estaban-Gonzalo et al’s study [61] , women with higher satisfaction levels with the information provided by healthcare professionals and a greater degree of information about COVID-19 restrictions, symptoms, and complications had a lower state anxiety score, whereas lack of information on restrictive measures was associated with higher state anxiety scores.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Parental experiences with changes in maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-studies systematic review

et al. 2023

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental experiences with changes in maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-studies systematic review

et al. 2023

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“…For example, a systematic review showed that when designing effective systems for parent-child support, factors such as: norms, transparency and trust, interface design, accessibility, user experience and context are valuable to consider. 6 In addition, current study was performed before the COVID-19-pandemic which brought with restrictions that influenced on expecting parents’ feelings of social isolation, 70 and the use of digital sources in antenatal care to reduce pregnancy-related distress and anxiety, 71 for example. The role of the continuously developing technology, due to the COVID-19-pandemic, in regard to the health among parents is claimed to need further exploration.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expecting parents’ use of digital sources in preparation for parenthood in a digitalised society – a systematic review

et al. 2022

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Background In today's society, people are experiencing the rapid development of digitalisation. Expecting parents may have difficulties evaluating the information online; they are not always sure which sources of information are trustworthy, and this exacerbates their feelings of anxiety. More research is needed to broaden the knowledge about how their use of digital sources may influence their health. Question The focus of this study was to explore expecting parents’ use of digital sources and how this influences their health during pregnancy. Methods A systematic review covered the thematic analysis of 39 articles. Findings The analysis resulted in the following theme: The digitalised society involves both opportunities and challenges, and expecting parents express a need for a variety of digital sources to improve their health, and sub-themes: Digital sources could promote parents’ health and well-being in a digitalised society; Consuming digital health information facilitates understanding, different feelings and social connections; and A variety of digital sources may facilitate parental identification and adaption to parenthood. Conclusion Different digital sources in our digitalised society mean access to information and opportunities to extend social connections for expecting parents. This can promote their ability to understand and adapt to parenthood, as well as to improve their health and well-being and make the parental transition. However, professional support during face-to-face consultations cannot always be exchanged to digital sources. It is important to base digital sources devoted to expecting parents and digitalisation overall on multi-sectorial collaborations and coordination between different organisations and the digital sources they provide.

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“…However, they had strong trust in maternity services despite the limited information available. 25 The WHO and governments also face the challenge of an infodemic characterized by difficulties in finding credible and trustworthy sources amid an excess of information, magnified by and information shared quickly. 26 In the heightened digitalization, the media has been used to convey valuable information, such as emerging findings and management protocols on COVID-19 which anyone around the globally can access instantly.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial issues and coping mechanisms of pregnant and postnatal women diagnosed with COVID-19: A qualitative study

Kabwe

Lubeya

Phiri

et al. 2022

Womens Health (Lond Engl)

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Objective There is a paucity of data on the psychosocial issues and coping mechanisms among pregnant and postnatal women with COVID-19 infection. We, therefore, aimed to explore the psychosocial issues and coping mechanisms of pregnant and postnatal women diagnosed with COVID-19 at tertiary-level hospitals. Methods This was a qualitative phenomenological study conducted in 2021 with a sample size of 16 women admitted at two referral hospitals serving as COVID-19 admission facilities for pregnant and postnatal women in Lusaka, Zambia. In-depth interviews were conducted via telephone to understand what these women experienced when diagnosed with COVID-19. All the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted using the six steps approach to develop emerging themes. Results Two major themes emerged: psychosocial issues and coping mechanisms. The primary psychosocial issues were worry and stigma. Women worried about infecting their unborn baby or neonate, being separated from the baby, the general safety of the baby, and the health of other family members. Women also worried about the attitude of health care providers and faced discrimination or stigma because of their infection. Thus, some coping mechanisms were developed that helped them, such as a positive attitude, keeping the disease secret, reliance on family members for support and using positive information from social media. Conclusion This study provides unique insights into the psychosocial experiences of pregnant and postnatal women diagnosed with COVID-19. Women were particularly concerned about the unborn baby’s well-being and discrimination. This study suggests the need for policy and clinical practice to consider the integration of effective mental health services into the provision of maternal health and COVID-19 services.

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Being in the shadow of the unknown — Swedish women’s lived experiences of pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic, a phenomenological study

Cited by 24 publications

References 28 publications

Parental experiences with changes in maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-studies systematic review

Parental experiences with changes in maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-studies systematic review

Expecting parents’ use of digital sources in preparation for parenthood in a digitalised society – a systematic review

Psychosocial issues and coping mechanisms of pregnant and postnatal women diagnosed with COVID-19: A qualitative study

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