Abstract
Objectives
The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on maternal mental health. We explored the lived experiences of women with perinatal depression and anxiety to elucidate their perceptions of how the pandemic influenced their mental health and access to care.
Methods
We conducted a qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews. From March to October 2021, purposive sampling was used to recruit a socio-demographically diverse sample of women with self-reported perinatal depression or anxiety who were pregnant or within one year postpartum between March 2020 and October 2021. Interviews were conducted remotely and thematically analyzed.
Results
Fourteen women were interviewed. Three major themes arose. Theme 1, Negative impacts of COVID-19 on symptoms of depression and anxiety, described how the pandemic magnified underlying symptoms of depression and anxiety, increased social isolation, generated anxiety due to fears of COVID-19 infection, and caused economic stress. In theme 2, Negative impacts of COVID-19 on access to and quality of health care, women described stressful and isolating delivery experiences, negative psychological impact of partners not being able to participate in their perinatal health care, interruptions and barriers to mental health treatment, and challenges in using telehealth services for mental health care. Theme 3, Positive impacts of COVID-19 on mental health, identified advantages of increased telehealth access and ability to work and study from home.
Conclusions for Practice
The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected women with perinatal depression and anxiety by magnifying underlying symptoms, increasing stress and social isolation, and disrupting access to mental health care. Findings provide support for policies and interventions to prevent and address social isolation, as well as optimization of telehealth services to prevent and address gaps in perinatal mental health treatment.
Significance
What is Already Known on this Subject? Quantitative data suggest that the pandemic increased rates of perinatal mental illness. Yet the perspectives of women with perinatal depression and anxiety on how the pandemic affected their mental health and access to care remain underreported.
What this Study adds? This paper offers new insight from the lived experience of women with perinatal depression and anxiety on ways the pandemic negatively and positively affected their mental health and access to mental health care. Implications for interventions, policies, and clinical practice are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the participants for their time and effort in participating in this study. We thank Perpetual Tamakloe, Ayanna Chain, and Amaly Garcia Vargas from the Rutgers School of Public Health for their research support.
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Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), a component of the National Institute of Health (NIH) under award number UL1TR003017. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The funder had no role in collection of data, analysis, or interpretation, and no role in submission for publication.
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Slawa Rokicki: Conceptualization; Investigation; Formal analysis; Project administration; Writing - original draft; Writing - review & editing; Thomas I. Mackie: Writing - review & editing.; Robyn D’Oria: Writing - review & editing; Validation; Mariella Flores: Writing - review & editing; Validation; Ashley Watson: Writing - review & editing; Validation; Nancy Byatt: Writing - review & editing; Patricia Suplee: Writing - review & editing; Validation;
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Nancy Byatt has received salary and/or funding support from Massachusetts Department of Mental Health via the Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms (MCPAP for Moms). She is also the statewide Medical Director of MCPAP for Moms and the Executive Director of the Lifeline for Families Center at UMass Chan Medical School. She has served on the Medscape Steering Committee on Clinical Advances in Postpartum Depression. She received honoraria from Global Learning Collaborative, Medscape, and Mathematica. She has also served as a consultant for The Kinetix Group. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.
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Ethical approval for the study was granted by Rutgers School of Public Health (Pro2020002705).
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Rokicki, S., Mackie, T.I., D’Oria, R. et al. A Qualitative Investigation of the Experiences of Women with Perinatal Depression and Anxiety during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Matern Child Health J 28, 274–286 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03809-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-023-03809-y