Cargando…
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...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
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 |
_version_ | 1784649438347657216 |
---|---|
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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8835455 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT schmiedhofermartina birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT derksenchristina birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT dietljohannaelisa birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT hausslerfreya birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT louwenfrank birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT hunerbeate birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT reisterfrank birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT strametzreinhard birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers AT lippkesonia birthingundertheconditionofthecovid19pandemicingermanyinterviewswithmotherspartnersandobstetrichealthcareworkers |