Maternity care changes and postpartum mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a Spanish cross-sectional study

ABSTRACT

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to abrupt changes in maternity care, but the impact of these changes has not yet been deeply evaluated. This study aimed to assess the impact of the unexpected changes in maternity care due to the COVID-19 pandemic on postpartum mental health (depression, anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder).

Methods

A cross-sectional, web-based study was conducted in Spain during the second half of 2020. The eligibility criteria were women≥18 years with a child≤6 months. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Screener (GAD-7) and a subset of the PTSD checklist (PCL-5) were used to assess postpartum mental health. Information regarding sociodemographic characteristics and maternity care changes was collected, and multivariate regression models were used.

Results

Among 1781 participants, 29.3% and 33% had clinically significant depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively. The most prevalent unexpected changes reported were related to the exclusion of supportive relatives during birth and postpartum. Changes reported during birth showed a minor association with PTSD symptomatology, and those that occurred during the postpartum period were associated with clinical depression, anxiety and PTSD symptoms.

Conclusions

The unexpected changes in maternity care due to the COVID-19 pandemic, especially those that occurred during the postpartum period, increased the risk of mental health problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Depression
• PTSD
• GENERALIZED ANXIETY
• MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES
• COVID-19

Acknowledgments

The research group wishes to thank all of the generous women who took the time to complete the questionnaire during the difficult times of pandemics and maternity.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2023.2171375

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

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

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by COST under COST Action Riseup-PPD CA18138.