Pregnancy, Birth and the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States

ABSTRACT

How quickly and in what ways are US maternity care practices changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Our data indicate that partners and doulas are being excluded from birthing rooms leaving mothers unsupported, while providers face lack of protective equipment and unclear guidelines. We investigate rapidly shifting protocols for in- and out-of-hospital births and the decision making behind them. We ask, will COVID-19 cause women, families, and providers to look at birthing in a different light? And will this pandemic offer a testing ground for future policy changes to generate effective maternity care amidst pandemics and other types of disasters?

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• pregnancy
• birth
• maternity care
• obstetricians
• midwives
• doulas
• homebirth
• freebirth

Acknowledgments

We sincerely thank all those busy practitioners who took the time to respond to our email questionnaire.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. We take this term “revealers” from Ivry et al. (2019).

2. The CM (Certified Midwife) certification was created by members of the ACNM in 1994. The CM receives the same higher education as the CNM, with the exception of nursing training. CMs are legal, licensed, and regulated in only 5 states, as most schools of midwifery are located within nursing programs and do not wish to produce “direct-entry” midwives who are not first trained as nurses, as CNMs are. (See May and Davis-Floyd 2006 for a history of the creation of the CM.)

3. Out of 34 members on this Taskforce, there were only 2 CNMs, no CPMs, along with 17 MDs, 5 JDs, and a few MBAs and MPPs (New York State Taskforce on Maternal Mortality and Disparate Racial Outcomes 2019).

4. These guidelines can be found at www.homebirthsummit.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/HomeBirthSummit_BestPracticeTransferGuidelines.pdf.

Additional information

Funding

The rapid-response research on which this article is based was undertaken without specific funding.

Notes on contributors

Robbie Davis-Floyd

Robbie Davis-Floyd is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, University of Texas, Austin. She specializes in the study of transformational models of childbirth, midwifery, obstetrics, and reproduction, and is editor of the Routledge book series Social Science Perspectives on Childbirth and Reproduction. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1963-6423.

Kim Gutschow

Kim Gutschow is a Lecturer in the Departments of Anthropology and Religion at Williams College, who has researched and published on maternal and newborn health in India and the US as well as on reproduction, social power, and gender in Buddhist India. Her first book, Being a Buddhist Nun (2004) won the Sharon Stephens Prize for best ethnography and she is completing an edited volume called Sustainable Birth in Disruptive Times (2020). ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8568-2052. E-Mail: [email protected]

David A Schwartz

David A Schwartz MD, MS Hyg, FCAP is a Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta with specialization in global maternal and infant health, emerging infections, and medical anthropology. He has studied the effects of HIV, Zika virus, Ebola virus, and COVID-19 on maternal and fetal outcomes and anthropological aspects of pregnancy, and is the editor of the Springer book series Global Maternal and Child Health. ORCID: 0000-0002-7486-8545. E-Mail: [email protected]