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Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland

BACKGROUND: Losing a baby during pregnancy can be a devastating experience for expectant parents. Many report dedicated, compassionate healthcare provision as a facilitator of positive mental health outcomes, however, healthcare services have been severely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. AIM:...

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Autores principales: Heaney, Suzanne, Galeotti, Martina, Aventin, Áine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10360341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37480006
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05839-4
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author Heaney, Suzanne
Galeotti, Martina
Aventin, Áine
author_facet Heaney, Suzanne
Galeotti, Martina
Aventin, Áine
author_sort Heaney, Suzanne
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Losing a baby during pregnancy can be a devastating experience for expectant parents. Many report dedicated, compassionate healthcare provision as a facilitator of positive mental health outcomes, however, healthcare services have been severely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. AIM: To explore women’s experiences of healthcare service provision for miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons (TFMR) on the island of Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Findings combine data from elements of two separate studies. Study 1 used a mixed methods approach with women who experienced miscarriage and attended a hospital in Northern Ireland. Study 2 was qualitative and examined experiences of TFMR in Northern Ireland and Ireland. Data analysed for this paper includes open-ended responses from 145 women to one survey question from Study 1, and semi-structured interview data with 12 women from Study 2. Data were analysed separately using Thematic Analysis and combined for presentation in this paper. RESULTS: Combined analysis of results indicated three themes, (1) Lonely and anxiety-provoking experiences; (2) Waiting for inadequate healthcare; and (3) The comfort of compassionate healthcare professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Women’s experiences of healthcare provision were negatively impacted by COVID-19, with the exclusion of their partner in hospital, and delayed services highlighted as particularly distressing. Limited in-person interactions with health professionals appeared to compound difficulties. The lived experience of service users will be helpful in developing policies, guidelines, and training that balance both the need to minimise the risk of infection spread, with the emotional, psychological, and physical needs and wishes of parents. Further research is needed to explore the long-term impact of pregnancy loss during a pandemic on both parents and health professionals delivering care. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-023-05839-4.
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spelling pubmed-103603412023-07-22 Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland Heaney, Suzanne Galeotti, Martina Aventin, Áine BMC Pregnancy Childbirth Research BACKGROUND: Losing a baby during pregnancy can be a devastating experience for expectant parents. Many report dedicated, compassionate healthcare provision as a facilitator of positive mental health outcomes, however, healthcare services have been severely impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. AIM: To explore women’s experiences of healthcare service provision for miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons (TFMR) on the island of Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Findings combine data from elements of two separate studies. Study 1 used a mixed methods approach with women who experienced miscarriage and attended a hospital in Northern Ireland. Study 2 was qualitative and examined experiences of TFMR in Northern Ireland and Ireland. Data analysed for this paper includes open-ended responses from 145 women to one survey question from Study 1, and semi-structured interview data with 12 women from Study 2. Data were analysed separately using Thematic Analysis and combined for presentation in this paper. RESULTS: Combined analysis of results indicated three themes, (1) Lonely and anxiety-provoking experiences; (2) Waiting for inadequate healthcare; and (3) The comfort of compassionate healthcare professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Women’s experiences of healthcare provision were negatively impacted by COVID-19, with the exclusion of their partner in hospital, and delayed services highlighted as particularly distressing. Limited in-person interactions with health professionals appeared to compound difficulties. The lived experience of service users will be helpful in developing policies, guidelines, and training that balance both the need to minimise the risk of infection spread, with the emotional, psychological, and physical needs and wishes of parents. Further research is needed to explore the long-term impact of pregnancy loss during a pandemic on both parents and health professionals delivering care. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-023-05839-4. BioMed Central 2023-07-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10360341/ /pubmed/37480006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05839-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Heaney, Suzanne
Galeotti, Martina
Aventin, Áine
Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland
title Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland
title_full Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland
title_fullStr Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland
title_full_unstemmed Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland
title_short Pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the COVID-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of Ireland
title_sort pregnancy loss following miscarriage and termination of pregnancy for medical reasons during the covid-19 pandemic: a thematic analysis of women’s experiences of healthcare on the island of ireland
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10360341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37480006
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12884-023-05839-4
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