By Ann Diamond Weinstein, Psychology Today, September 28, 2020
The experience of life during the pandemic and the impact of COVID-19 guidelines for perinatal care have changed the maternal-fetal experience of pregnancy and birth, as well as the maternal-infant experience during the postnatal period. The neuroception (1) of danger and the potential threat to one’s own life and that of loved ones has been sustained since the magnitude and lethalness of the pandemic was fully appreciated. Research assessing how pregnant women have been psychologically impacted by the pandemic is only beginning to be published.
In a study of pregnant women by Saccone et al. (2020), more than half the participants “rated the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak as severe, and about two-thirds reported higher than normal anxiety” (p.295). Almost half of the women reported high anxiety regarding the possibility of transmitting the disease to their prenate. Women experienced the most severe psychological impacts and anxiety in the first trimester of pregnancy (2). For women who carry past experiences of trauma and suffer traumatic stress symptoms, consideration of how COVID-19 affects their and their developing babies’ health and mental health should also be explored.
Guidelines for prenatal and perinatal care have been issued by clinical and public health organizations (Choi et al., 2020) (3). These guidelines are based on the current limited research on the specific risk of COVID-19 in pregnant women and girls, and the rate of maternal-fetal/infant transmission in the perinatal period.
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