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Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary containment measures challenge obstetric care. Support persons were excluded while protection measures burdened and disrupted the professionals’ ability to care and communicate. The objective of this study was to explore the first-hand experience o...

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Autores principales: Schmiedhofer, Martina, Derksen, Christina, Dietl, Johanna Elisa, Häussler, Freya, Louwen, Frank, Hüner, Beate, Reister, Frank, Strametz, Reinhard, Lippke, Sonia
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8835455/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35162509
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031486
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author Schmiedhofer, Martina
Derksen, Christina
Dietl, Johanna Elisa
Häussler, Freya
Louwen, Frank
Hüner, Beate
Reister, Frank
Strametz, Reinhard
Lippke, Sonia
author_facet Schmiedhofer, Martina
Derksen, Christina
Dietl, Johanna Elisa
Häussler, Freya
Louwen, Frank
Hüner, Beate
Reister, Frank
Strametz, Reinhard
Lippke, Sonia
author_sort Schmiedhofer, Martina
collection PubMed
description Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary containment measures challenge obstetric care. Support persons were excluded while protection measures burdened and disrupted the professionals’ ability to care and communicate. The objective of this study was to explore the first-hand experience of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers, their partners, and obstetric professionals regarding birth and obstetric care in a university hospital. Methods: To answer the descriptive research questions, we conducted a qualitative content analysis using a data triangulation approach. We carried out 35 semi-structured interviews with two stratified purposive samples. Sample one consisted of 25 mothers who had given birth during the pandemic and five partners. Sample two included 10 obstetric professionals whose insights complemented the research findings and contributed to data validation. Participants were recruited from the study sample of a larger project on patient safety from two German university hospitals from February to August 2021. The study was approved by two ethics committees and informed consent was obtained. Results: Mothers complied with the rules, but felt socially isolated and insecure, especially before transfer to the delivery room. The staff equally reported burdens from their professional perspective: They tried to make up for the lack of partner and social contacts but could not live up to their usual professional standards. The exclusion of partners was seen critically, but necessary to contain the pandemic. The undisturbed time for bonding in the maternity ward was considered positive by both mothers and professionals. Conclusion: The negative effects of risk mitigation measures on childbirth are to be considered carefully when containment measures are applied.
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spelling pubmed-88354552022-02-12 Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers Schmiedhofer, Martina Derksen, Christina Dietl, Johanna Elisa Häussler, Freya Louwen, Frank Hüner, Beate Reister, Frank Strametz, Reinhard Lippke, Sonia Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and the necessary containment measures challenge obstetric care. Support persons were excluded while protection measures burdened and disrupted the professionals’ ability to care and communicate. The objective of this study was to explore the first-hand experience of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers, their partners, and obstetric professionals regarding birth and obstetric care in a university hospital. Methods: To answer the descriptive research questions, we conducted a qualitative content analysis using a data triangulation approach. We carried out 35 semi-structured interviews with two stratified purposive samples. Sample one consisted of 25 mothers who had given birth during the pandemic and five partners. Sample two included 10 obstetric professionals whose insights complemented the research findings and contributed to data validation. Participants were recruited from the study sample of a larger project on patient safety from two German university hospitals from February to August 2021. The study was approved by two ethics committees and informed consent was obtained. Results: Mothers complied with the rules, but felt socially isolated and insecure, especially before transfer to the delivery room. The staff equally reported burdens from their professional perspective: They tried to make up for the lack of partner and social contacts but could not live up to their usual professional standards. The exclusion of partners was seen critically, but necessary to contain the pandemic. The undisturbed time for bonding in the maternity ward was considered positive by both mothers and professionals. Conclusion: The negative effects of risk mitigation measures on childbirth are to be considered carefully when containment measures are applied. MDPI 2022-01-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8835455/ /pubmed/35162509 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031486 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Schmiedhofer, Martina
Derksen, Christina
Dietl, Johanna Elisa
Häussler, Freya
Louwen, Frank
Hüner, Beate
Reister, Frank
Strametz, Reinhard
Lippke, Sonia
Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers
title Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers
title_full Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers
title_fullStr Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers
title_full_unstemmed Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers
title_short Birthing under the Condition of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Interviews with Mothers, Partners, and Obstetric Health Care Workers
title_sort birthing under the condition of the covid-19 pandemic in germany: interviews with mothers, partners, and obstetric health care workers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8835455/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35162509
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031486
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