The Impact of COVID-19 Related Distress on Antenatal Depression in Australia

Abstract

Globally, the impact of COVID-19 on mental health has been significant. Pregnant women are known to be a vulnerable population in relation to mental health. In Australia, there was an unprecedented demand during the pandemic for mental health services, including services for pregnant women. Maternal mental health has unique and enduring features that can significantly shape a child’s overall development and poor maternal mental health can have considerable social and economic costs. This cross-sectional study evaluated symptoms of antenatal depression and COVID-19-related distress in a sample of two hundred and sixty-nine pregnant women residing in Australia aged between 20 and 43 (M = 31.79, SD = 4.58), as part of a larger study. Social media advertising was used to recruit participants between September 2020 and November 2021. Prevalence rates for antenatal depression were found to be higher in this study (16.4%) compared with previous Australian prevalence rates (7%). COVID-19 distress in relation to having a baby during a COVID-19 outbreak significantly predicted symptoms of antenatal depression, B = 1.46, p < 0.001. Results from this study suggest that mothers and families may have increased mental health vulnerabilities as a consequence of the pandemic for some time yet.

Maternal Antibiotic Exposure and the Risk of Developing Antenatal Depressive Symptoms

“…Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several studies have reported on the incidence of ADSs in Australia, each using an EPDS cut-off of 13 in their methodology and using similar recruitment (paid/unpaid social media advertising) and data collection (online survey) methods to the current study. In chronological order (according to their data collection periods), these studies have reported the rates of ADSs to be: 26.5% ( n = 1219, August 2020–February 2021) [ 34 ], 26.7% ( n = 1607, July 2020–January 2021) [ 35 ], and 16.4% ( n = 269, September 2020–November 2021) [ 36 ]. We found 14.0% of individuals had an EPDS score of at least 13 ( n = 977, August 2021–November 2022).…”

“…The higher rates of ADSs reported by Lequertier et al [34] and Davis et al [35] could potentially be due to the studies being conducted around the time of the initiation of strict social isolation measures and internal and external border closure in Australia [34] and prior to the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine [37]. In contrast, more than half of the data collected by Frankham et al [36], and all of the data for the present study, were collected after vaccine roll-out began in Australia in February 2021, and may account for the decline in ADS incidence.…”