COVID-19-related anxiety and concerns expressed by pregnant and postpartum women—a survey among obstetricians

Nanjundaswamy, Madhuri H; Shiva, Lakshmi; Desai, Geetha; Ganjekar, Sundarnag; Kishore, M. Thomas; Ram, Usha; Satyanarayana, Veena A.; Thippeswamy, Harish; Chandra, Prabha S.

doi:10.1007/s00737-020-01060-w

Cited by 80 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Although face-to-face care from maternity and mental health services is clearly the optimum solution, Baby Buddy is in a position to provide support to expectant and new parents through its existing content, including the perinatal mental health films, the feature for couples (You and Your Partner), the Get Help feature, signposting to many other charities, and the Baby Buddy Crisis Messenger for 24/7 confidential and clinically assured support. The potential role of web-based resources in ameliorating COVID-19–related anxieties in perinatal women is echoed in a study among obstetricians in India [ 29 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences, Attitudes, and Needs of Users of a Pregnancy and Parenting App (Baby Buddy) During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Study

Rhodes¹,

Kheireddine²,

Smith³

2020

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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Background The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of expectant parents and parents of young babies, with disruptions in health care provision and loss of social support. Objective This study investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdown on this population through the lens of users of the UK National Health Service–approved pregnancy and parenting smartphone app, Baby Buddy. The study aims were threefold: to gain insights into the attitudes and experiences of expectant and recent parents (with babies under 24 weeks of age) during the COVID-19 pandemic; to investigate whether Baby Buddy is meeting users’ needs during this time; and to identify ways to revise the content of Baby Buddy to better support its users now and in future. Methods A mixed methods study design combining a web-based survey with semistructured telephone interviews among Baby Buddy users in the United Kingdom was applied. Data were collected from April 15 to mid-June 2020, corresponding to weeks 4-13 of the lockdown in the United Kingdom. Results A total of 436 expectant (n=244, 56.0%) and recent (n=192, 44.0%) parents responded to the web-based survey, of which 79.1% (n=345) were aged 25-39 years and 17.2% (n=75) spoke English as their second language. Of the 436 respondents, 88.5% (386/436) reported increased levels of anxiety around pregnancy, birth, and being a new parent, and 58.0% (253/436) were concerned about their emotional and mental health. Of the 244 pregnant respondents, 43.4% (n=106) were concerned about their physical health. Telephone interviews with 13 pregnant women and 19 recent parents revealed similarly increased levels of anxiety due to reduced health care provision and loss of support from friends and family. Although a minority of respondents identified some positive outcomes of lockdown, such as family bonding, many telephone interviewees reported feeling isolated, disregarded, and overwhelmed. Recent parents were particularly anxious about the impact of the lockdown on their baby’s development and socialization. Many interviewees were also concerned about their physical health as a consequence of both limited access to face-to-face medical appointments and their own poorer dietary and physical activity behaviors. Across both samples, 97.0% (423/436) of respondents reported that Baby Buddy was currently helping them, with many commenting that its role was even more important given the lack of face-to-face support from health care and parenting organizations. Greater speed in updating digital content to reflect changes due to the pandemic was suggested. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic has created heightened anxiety and stress among expectant parents and those with a young baby, and for many, lockdown has had an adverse impact on their physical and mental well-being. With reductions in health care and social support, expectant and new parents are increasingly relying on web-based resources. As a free, evidence-based app, Baby Buddy is well positioned to meet this need. The app could support its users even more by actively directing them to the wealth of existing content relevant to their concerns and by adding content to give users the knowledge and confidence to meet new challenges.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences, Attitudes, and Needs of Users of a Pregnancy and Parenting App (Baby Buddy) During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Study

Rhodes¹,

Kheireddine²,

Smith³

2020

JMIR Mhealth Uhealth

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“…This COVID-19 pandemic has considerably increased global mental health issues (Druss 2020;Holmes et al 2020;Li et al 2020, b;Nanjundaswamy et al 2020;Yao et al 2020). Overall mental distress is further exacerbated by the emphasis on social distancing, and the shutdown of usual day-to-day functioning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of gender and clinical-financial vulnerability on mental distress due to COVID-19

Simha

Prasad

Ahmed³

et al. 2020

Arch Womens Ment Health

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“…Only about 20% of pregnant women experience excessive concern about future events in pregnancy [6]. A study on Indian obstetricians showed that during COVID-19 pandemic the level of fear and worry were increased in pregnant women [7]. Fear, worry, and anxiety during pregnancy has negative physical and psychological health consequences for pregnant women.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pregnant Women’s Well-being and Worry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study

Mortazavi

Mehrabadi

KiaeeTabar

2020

Preprint

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Background: COVID-19 caused some worries among pregnant women. Worries during pregnancy can affect women’s well-being. We investigated worry and well-being and associated factors among pregnant women during the COVID-19 epidemic.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 484 pregnant women using an online questionnaire. Sampling was performed in a period between May 5 and Aug 5, 2020. Inclusion criteria were having a single healthy fetus and having no significant psychological disorder. We collected the data using the Persian versions of the World Health Organization's well-being Index (WHO-5 well-being index) and the Cambridge worry scale.Results: The mean total scores of the WHO-5 well-being index and the rate of WHO-5 score < 50 were 64.9 ± 29.0 and 24.4%, respectively. Predictors of women’s worry are the increased level of fear of COVID-19, a low family income, employment situation, nulliparity, and having no close family member with chronic disease (p < 0.05). The results of logistic regression analysis on well-being scores showed that the worry about fetus health (OR = 1.081, p = 0.005), women’s own health and relationships (OR = 1.055, p = 0.047), and having an infected person with COVID-19 among relatives (OR = 2.095, p = 0.039) could predict the well-being in pregnant women. The mean score of worry about fetus health in the current study was lower than that of the previous study (p = 0.024). The mean score of socio-economic worry in the current study was higher than that of the previous cross-sectional study (p = 0.025). The result indicates that the percentage of participants with a low level of well-being did not differ by the two periods under study (chi-square = 0.099, p = 0.753) (table 7). Conclusions: The percentage of women experiencing a low well-being state was relatively high. This result is worthy of attention by health care providers and policy makers. To decrease women’s socio economic concerns, governments and charities should expand programs providing financial support to pregnant women in low-income families. Providing care and support to pregnant women should have high priority during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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COVID-19-related anxiety and concerns expressed by pregnant and postpartum women—a survey among obstetricians

Cited by 80 publications

References 14 publications

Experiences, Attitudes, and Needs of Users of a Pregnancy and Parenting App (Baby Buddy) During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Study

Experiences, Attitudes, and Needs of Users of a Pregnancy and Parenting App (Baby Buddy) During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Study

Effect of gender and clinical-financial vulnerability on mental distress due to COVID-19

Pregnant Women’s Well-being and Worry During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Study

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