Mother-infant postnatal experience and its association with maternal emotion and coping during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a partial lockdown in Malaysia known as Movement-Controlled-Order (MCO), which has affected primary care management and social life norms. Thus, psychological health is a concern for mothers, particularly during the postpartum period. This study aimed to determine factors associated with maternal emotional experiences and coping during the pandemic.

Methodology

Mothers of infants aged < 18 months (n = 1449) in Malaysia completed an online survey during MCO (July 2020 to February 2021). The survey comprised questions on sociodemographics, pandemic livelihood impact, maternal experiences, and emotions.

Results

More than one-third of mothers expressed feeling worried (54.7%), annoyed (48.1%), and tired (42.2%) to some or a high extent. Mothers who were younger (p = .001), more educated (p = .001), faced difficulty paying rent (p = .002), and whose husbands were unemployed (p < .001) expressed higher negative emotions. In contrast, mothers who received enough support for health (p = .001) and breastfeeding (p = .008), had infants sleep less (p = .042) and had more time to focus on health (p < .001) expressed better emotions. Higher coping was expressed among mothers with a higher household income (p = .004), had more time to focus on their health (p = .010), received additional breastfeeding support (p = 0.039), and practised traditional postpartum care (p < .001). In contrast, difficulty paying for essentials (p = .023) was associated with negative coping.

Conclusion

Maternal emotional experiences were significantly associated with sociodemographic characteristics, livelihood impact, postnatal experiences, and infant behaviours. Postpartum mental health screening is recommended to prevent severe distress, especially in first-time mothers. Coping interventions for mothers at risk may include comprehensive support and maternity care.

KEYWORDS:

• Psychology
• maternity
• maternal care
• motherhood
• infant

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of the mothers who participated in this study, as well as those who helped spread information about the study. We are thankful to the Research Management Centre for providing the funding for the research (Geran Inisiatif Putra Siswazah (GP-IPS ID:9675400).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration

This research has been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and has been approved by Ethics Committee for Research involving Human Subjects, Universiti Putra Malaysia in June 2020 (Reference number: JKEUPM-2020-193).

We confirmed that all participants provided consent form before completing the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Institut Pengajian Siswazah, Universiti Putra Malaysia under Geran Inisiatif Putra Siswazah [GP-IPS ID:9675400].