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Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The aim of the study was to investigate the challenges of involuntary separation experienced by women during pregnancy and childbirth in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted by the means of a self-administered questionnaire. One thousand and eleven women (1011) from Poland took...

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Autores principales: Malarkiewicz, Paulina, Maksymowicz, Stanisław, Libura, Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9099559/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564476
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095081
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author Malarkiewicz, Paulina
Maksymowicz, Stanisław
Libura, Maria
author_facet Malarkiewicz, Paulina
Maksymowicz, Stanisław
Libura, Maria
author_sort Malarkiewicz, Paulina
collection PubMed
description The aim of the study was to investigate the challenges of involuntary separation experienced by women during pregnancy and childbirth in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted by the means of a self-administered questionnaire. One thousand and eleven women (1011) from Poland took part in the study, with an average age of approximately 30 years. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Warmia and Mazury University in Olsztyn, Poland. The results show that the majority of the surveyed women experienced involuntary separation from their partners during pregnancy and childbirth: 66.27% had no choice but to give birth alone and 84.37% had not been able to attend medical appointments with their partners. Solitary encounters with healthcare were associated with the feeling of fear (36.4%), anger (41%), a sense of injustice (52.2%), acute sadness (36.6%) and a sense of loss (42.6%), with all the reported levels higher in younger women. Over 74% of respondents were afraid of childbirth without a partner present. Almost 70% felt depressed because of a lonely delivery experience. Nearly a quarter of the mothers surveyed declared that if they could go back in time, they would not have made the decision to become pregnant during the pandemic. Based on our study, we found that adjustments to prenatal and neonatal care arrangements under COVID-19-related regimens are needed. Our proposal is to implement at least three fundamental actions: (1) risk calculations for pandemic-related cautionary measures should take into account the benefits of the accompanied medical appointments and births, which should be restored and maintained if plausible; (2) medical personnel should be pre-trained to recognise and respond to the needs of patients as a part of crisis preparedness. If the situation does not allow the patient to stay with her family during important moments of maternity care, other forms of contact, including new technologies, should be used; (3) psychological consultation should be available to all patients and their partners. These solutions should be included in the care plan for pregnant women, taking into account a risk-benefit assessment.
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spelling pubmed-90995592022-05-14 Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic Malarkiewicz, Paulina Maksymowicz, Stanisław Libura, Maria Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The aim of the study was to investigate the challenges of involuntary separation experienced by women during pregnancy and childbirth in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted by the means of a self-administered questionnaire. One thousand and eleven women (1011) from Poland took part in the study, with an average age of approximately 30 years. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Warmia and Mazury University in Olsztyn, Poland. The results show that the majority of the surveyed women experienced involuntary separation from their partners during pregnancy and childbirth: 66.27% had no choice but to give birth alone and 84.37% had not been able to attend medical appointments with their partners. Solitary encounters with healthcare were associated with the feeling of fear (36.4%), anger (41%), a sense of injustice (52.2%), acute sadness (36.6%) and a sense of loss (42.6%), with all the reported levels higher in younger women. Over 74% of respondents were afraid of childbirth without a partner present. Almost 70% felt depressed because of a lonely delivery experience. Nearly a quarter of the mothers surveyed declared that if they could go back in time, they would not have made the decision to become pregnant during the pandemic. Based on our study, we found that adjustments to prenatal and neonatal care arrangements under COVID-19-related regimens are needed. Our proposal is to implement at least three fundamental actions: (1) risk calculations for pandemic-related cautionary measures should take into account the benefits of the accompanied medical appointments and births, which should be restored and maintained if plausible; (2) medical personnel should be pre-trained to recognise and respond to the needs of patients as a part of crisis preparedness. If the situation does not allow the patient to stay with her family during important moments of maternity care, other forms of contact, including new technologies, should be used; (3) psychological consultation should be available to all patients and their partners. These solutions should be included in the care plan for pregnant women, taking into account a risk-benefit assessment. MDPI 2022-04-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9099559/ /pubmed/35564476 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095081 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
Malarkiewicz, Paulina
Maksymowicz, Stanisław
Libura, Maria
Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Mother’s Loneliness: Involuntary Separation of Pregnant Women in Maternity Care Settings and Its Effects on the Experience of Mothers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort mother’s loneliness: involuntary separation of pregnant women in maternity care settings and its effects on the experience of mothers during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9099559/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35564476
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095081
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