Giving birth and becoming a parent during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative analysis of 806 women's responses to three open-ended questions in an online survey.
Tine S Eri, Ellen Blix, Soo Downe and 2 others
PMID 35349790WHAT IT FOUND
Women described pandemic maternity care as stressful because companion rules were unclear and they feared giving birth alone.
Postnatal wards felt understaffed and cold, with little breastfeeding help and partners often absent.
Key findings
01Women’s accounts organised around four themes: pregnancy as a stressful waiting period, loneliness and disempowerment without the partner, wanting to share becoming a family, and busy postnatal care without compassion.
02Not knowing which companion rules would apply at the hospital was described as stressful, and some women delayed going to hospital in labour because they feared being admitted without their partner.
03On the postnatal ward, women often felt staff were overloaded, help was hard to get, and breastfeeding support was quick or absent.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The survey was not designed to explore pandemic experiences directly, so the questions did not explicitly ask about COVID-19. Respondents were self-selected from an open online survey, so women with dramatic experiences or strong views may have been overrepresented. The study included only women who gave birth in clinical settings in Norway and answered in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English; home births and other languages were excluded. The findings describe women’s experiences, not clinical outcomes, infection risk, or whether restrictions were medically necessary.
Declared interests
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The research did not receive specific grant funding from public, commercial, or non-for-profit sectors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as proof that pandemic restrictions caused depression, poor breastfeeding outcomes, or worse clinical safety. The survey was not designed to explore pandemic experiences directly, and women self-selected into an online maternity-care questionnaire.