Perinatal support for couples during COVID‐19: A descriptive qualitative study

Abstract

Aims and objectives:To explore the perspectives of parents during the perinatal period amid the COVID-19 pandemic and explore the experiences of Singaporean parents receiving perinatal support via the Supportive Parenting App (SPA). Background: The stressors accompanying parenting responsibilities often affect the overall well-being of the family unit. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, Singaporean parents are forced to shoulder childcare responsibilities with minimal support due to safety restrictions. The Supportive Parenting Application (SPA) was introduced to parents during the start of the pandemic to offer timely additional support. It is a mobile health application-based educational support for parents across the perinatal period, consisting of features such as peer support, expert advice and discussion forums. Design: Descriptive qualitative study. Methods: Semi-structured one-to-one interviews were conducted with 33 parents (16 from the control group, 17 from the intervention group) in an ongoing randomised controlled trial between June 2021 and February 2022. The COREQ checklist was used to guide the reporting of the data. Results: Four themes with 10 subthemes describing the perinatal experiences of parents were identified. The themes include 'Ups and downs' of parenting experiences; Perinatal care from 'best care' to 'flying blind'; What kept couples going and Use of technology-a way forward. Conclusion:Although COVID-19 negatively affected parents' availability of care and support, most could still access other support sources to help them. Additionally, the SPA was found to be a dependable information source for the intervention group

Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Supportive Parenting App on Parental Outcomes: Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Many parents receive help from family members during this period with tasks such as doing household chores, cooking, and caring for the mother and infant [ 45 ]. However, isolation because COVID-19 made it difficult for parents to receive such familial and instrumental support, causing them to lose an important source of support during this period [ 14 ]. These could be the reasons that though parents had access to the various types of support, including informational and emotional support, via the SPA, they were missing the support of their loved ones, which is seen as a crucial support system after childbirth in the Southeast Asian culture.…”

“…As elaborated previously, the COVID-19 pandemic might have hindered a larger reduction in anxiety levels, as the pandemic brought new sets of difficulties that caused parents to experience more stress [ 49 ]. Parents were unable to seek instrumental help from family members and friends, which could have been a major stressor for first-time parents, and experienced parents had their own unique needs as they had to juggle even more childcare responsibilities because of the shift to home-based learning [ 14 ]. Although the findings of our study did not show any statistical significance on anxiety scores, parents in the intervention group mostly experienced slightly lower levels of anxiety compared with parents in the control group.…”

“…Although the findings of our study did not show any statistical significance on anxiety scores, parents in the intervention group mostly experienced slightly lower levels of anxiety compared with parents in the control group. This could be because of the reasons highlighted by the parents in our qualitative study [ 14 ] that the SPA notifications and knowledge base contents were very helpful for them, especially when it was difficult to obtain information from health care professionals during the COVID-19 period, as parents were discouraged from visiting the hospitals and antenatal classes were canceled abruptly [ 14 ].…”

“…Previous research has found that receiving sufficient social support improves parental and child outcomes [ 11 - 14 ]. Parents receiving more social support tend to engage in more positive parent-child interactions [ 11 ], have better parenting skills, and have greater self-efficacy [ 12 ].…”

“…Knowing that help is readily available enables parents to make more effort for developing better parenting skills. Qualitative studies have also revealed that various sources of instrumental, emotional, and informational support play an important role in helping new parents transition to parenthood [ 14 , 15 ]. In contrast, lack of support significantly affects the ability of parents to cope with and adjust to the influx of responsibilities they face when welcoming a new baby into their life [ 3 ].…”