Pandemic Birthing: Childbirth Satisfaction, Perceived Health Care Bias, and Postpartum Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Matern Child Health J
; 25(6): 860-869, 2021 Jun.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1204916
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on birth satisfaction and perceived health care discrimination during childbirth, and in turn, the influence of these birth experiences on postpartum health. STUDYDESIGN:
We conducted a cross-sectional, bilingual web survey of 237 women who gave birth at two hospitals in New York City and assessed patient-reported experience and outcomes following the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the New York region. We ascertained SARS-CoV-2 status at delivery from the electronic medical record using participant-reported name and date of birth. We compared birth experience during the COVID-19 pandemic (March 15, 2020-May 11, 2020) to a pre-pandemic response period (January 1, 2020-March 14, 2020). We estimated risk ratios for associations between birth experience and anxiety, depressive symptoms, stress, birth-related PTSD, emergency department visits, timely postpartum visit, and exclusive breastfeeding. Multivariable models adjusted for age, race-ethnicity, insurance, education, parity, BMI, previous experience of maltreatment/abuse and cesarean delivery.RESULTS:
Women who gave birth during the peak of the pandemic response, and those that were SARS-CoV-2 positive, Black, and Latina, had lower birth satisfaction and higher perceived health care discrimination. Women with lower birth satisfaction were more likely to report higher postpartum anxiety, stress, depressive symptoms, and lower exclusive breastfeeding. Experiencing one or more incident of health care discrimination was associated with higher levels of postpartum stress and birth-related PTSD.CONCLUSION:
Hospitals and policy-makers should institute measures to safeguard against a negative birth experience during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among birthing people of color.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Anxiety
/
Personal Satisfaction
/
Delivery of Health Care
/
Parturition
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Pregnancy
/
Young adult
Language:
English
Journal:
Matern Child Health J
Journal subject:
Perinatology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S10995-021-03158-8
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