Birth in the time of COVID
Was the experience of pregnancy and giving birth during the pandemic all bad? We look at two studies which show the positives and negatives
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PHOTO CREDIT: UNSPLASH IMAGE BY RAUL ANGEL
he spread of COVID-19 to Australia in early 2020 prompted the start of a series of restrictions and lockdowns forcing prenatal and postnatal care to undergo a rapid and significant change. Fewer face-to-face appointments, restrictions on partner attendance at appointments, ultrasounds, and in some cases even the birth, led to deleterious effects on women’s mental health. In addition, the stress of the pandemic itself, as well as quarantine requirements and lockdowns, compounded feelings of isolation and depression for many women. The Birth in the time of COVID (BITTOC) study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health this year looked at the experiences of over 2600 women during the first year of the pandemic. From August 2020 to February 2021, pregnant women or women who had given birth (since the close of Australian borders in March 2020), completed an online survey and self-reported on depression, social
of the COVID-19 response support and experiences related to COVID-19.
but go further in explaining who has been most affected.
The results were significant. The study found elevated depressive symptoms in 26.5% of pregnant women and 19% in women who had given birth during this period. Depression during pregnancy and post-partum is considered a public health concern “due to its association with altered motherinfant interactions, more negative child developmental outcomes and considerable personal and economic costs,” the study reports.
Alarmingly, the study found that 60 to 70% of women who reported as having clinically significant depressive symptoms did not receive any form of mental health treatment.
Professor Hannah Dahlen, from the Maternal Newborn and Women’s Clinical Academic Group (MNW CAG), who leads the BITTOC study and was a co-author on this paper, explains that several studies have now found depressive symptoms in perinatal women appear to be greater than before COVID-19. The BITTOC findings also show impact on the mental health of pregnant women during the pandemic
The study examined the ways in which the pandemic impacted women’s mental health including family stress/discord which they found when moderate to severe increased the risk of elevated depression fivefold compared to women who had no stress/discord. “These findings highlight the importance of considering pandemic stress in the family, including the potential role of couple interventions to reduce the risk of perinatal depression in vulnerable families,” the study reports. Interestingly, direct exposure to COVID-19 was not associated with greater depressive symptoms while the study found that exposure
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