Postnatal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Impact on mothers' postnatal sense of security and on mother-to-infant bonding.
Céline Schaming, Jaqueline Wendland
PMID 36473335WHAT IT FOUND
Questionnaire scores for bonding, security and depression did not differ before and during the pandemic.
Mothers' comments still described contamination fears, isolation, masks, restricted partner visits and delayed family introductions that affected security and bonding.
Key findings
01Mean scores for mother-infant bonding, postnatal depression and sense of security did not significantly differ between the pre-pandemic and pandemic samples.
02In the pandemic sample, a third of respondents said the pandemic had impacted early interactions and bonding, and a quarter said it had impacted sense of security.
03Lower maternal emotional security was associated with higher postnatal depression and bonding disturbance scores in both samples.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Recruitment was through social media and self-selection, so participants were mostly partnered, better-educated and more managerial than the general French population. The pandemic and pre-pandemic samples differed in age, education, occupation, breastfeeding and postnatal psychological support, so differences may not be caused by the pandemic alone. All outcomes were self-reported, and sense of security relied on memory of the first postnatal week. The study did not observe mother-infant interactions directly, and the bonding questionnaire can be affected by social desirability. The qualitative comments were short and came only from the pandemic sample, so they cannot show how common these experiences were. The study did not include fathers, partners or other caregivers.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the unchanged questionnaire scores as proof that the pandemic had no effect on postnatal mental health or bonding. The same pandemic sample reported contamination fears, isolation, mask barriers, restricted partner visits and delayed family introductions that affected security and bonding.