Receiving maternity care during the COVID-19 pandemic: Experiences of women's partners and support persons.
Vidanka Vasilevski, Linda Sweet, Zoe Bradfield and 6 others
PMID 33941497WHAT IT FOUND
Partners and support persons felt isolated and distressed when maternity restrictions blocked them from appointments, birth, education and postnatal contact.
Some valued hygiene measures, fewer visitors and telehealth that kept them involved.
Key findings
01Partners and support persons described missing out on pregnancy and maternity care and feeling isolated when restrictions kept them away from appointments, birth and postnatal contact.
02Conflicting and constantly changing information from maternity services reduced the perceived quality of care for many participants.
03Some participants valued increased hygiene measures, fewer visitors and virtual contact, saying these gave rest, bonding time or a way to stay involved.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Convenience online recruitment and self-nominated interviews mean the sample may not represent all partners and support persons. Most participants were English-speaking, Australian-born, male partners, so experiences of other families may be missed. The study reports experiences, not measured clinical outcomes, so it cannot show whether policies caused harm or benefit. Participants could not be compared with partners in non-pandemic maternity care. Interviews were online, which may have limited depth or excluded people without access.
Declared interests
Caroline Homer and Linda Sweet declared a conflict of interest because they are Editor in Chief and Deputy Editor of Women and Birth. The study was funded by the Deakin University Institute for Health Transformation.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that excluding partners from maternity care is safe or that including them improves outcomes; this paper reports experiences from a convenience sample and does not measure patient, infant or partner outcomes.