Pregnant women’s psychological state and influence factors: anxiety, and depression during COVID-19 outbreak

Abstract

Objectives The outbreak of COVID-19 affects both physical and mental health of pregnant women. This study focuses on their psychological status, and analyzes the main factors affecting their emotions of pregnant women so as to provide guidance for psychological counseling and social intervention during epidemics. Methods Multiple researchers distributed a questionnaire online via the Internet. Pregnant women volunteered, and the questionnaire was automatically collected in the background. Results The 298 valid questionnaires recovered showed that 82 cases of pregnant women were in states of anxiety, accounting for 27.51%, of which 78.05% were mild (82 cases), 19.51% were moderate (16 cases), and 2.44% were severe (2 cases). Moreover, 31.21% of pregnant women were in states of depression (93 cases), of which 52.69% were mild (49 cases), 40.86% were moderate (38 cases), and 6.45% were severe (6 cases). The risk factors for states of anxiety or depression were fear of fetal malformation or genetic disease, history of adverse pregnancy, can’t do routine prenatal examination, and insufficient support and care from husbands and families. Besides, 16 cases had sought psychological help during the epidemic, among whom 62.50% (10 cases) experienced anxiety, 68.75% (11 cases) had depression. Conclusions During the outbreak of COVID-19, obstetricians may take use of the Internet, based on the advantages in epidemic prevention, controlling health education, and popularizing science. In addition, husbands and family members should provide greater care for pregnant women, to protect their mental health during public health incidents.

Pregnant Women’s Anxiety and Depression Symptoms and Influence Factors in the COVID-19 Pandemic in Changzhou, China

“…In addition, we found respondents’ lives seriously impacted by the coronavirus were more likely to have psychological problems. Possible reasons are an inconvenience in obtaining antenatal examinations, lack of social and family support, and income losses because of a social isolation policy ( Li et al, 2020 ; Cao et al, 2021 ). Consistent with our findings, many studies have demonstrated that physical exercise could reduce anxiety and depression symptoms in pregnant women and therefore could be an effective strategy to enhance mental health ( Farrell et al, 2020 ; Colli et al, 2021 ).…”

Women’s Psychological Health, Family Function, and Social Support During Their Third Trimester of Pregnancy Within the COVID-19 Epidemic: A Cross-sectional Survey

“…Although the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was primarily applied for screening postpartum depression, it was also validated as being useful for pregnant women with good reliability and validity. 5 It is a 10-item scale that requires participants to appraise their depression-related symptoms from 0 (never) to 3 (always). The scores in each question were summed, and a final score ≥ 9 defined the state for depression.…”

Psychological profile and mood disturbance of women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania

“…Previous research shows that the pandemic situations may affect people's emotional state and that misinformation or deficiencies of health systems in providing information and preparing the population to have appropriate attitudes may have a negative psychological impact ( Cao et al, 2021 ).…”

“…The immuno-psycho-emotional vulnerability of pregnancy, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic may increase, facilitating both the physical viral attack on the mother-foetus dyads as well as the psychological one ( Cao et al, 2021 ; Zanardo et al, 2020 ). Health systems should find solutions to provide additional psycho-emotional support to pregnant women during pandemics or any other unusual situations related to unpredictable natural disasters ( Ahmad and Vismara, 2021 ; Zanardo et al, 2020 ).…”