Making good care essential: The impact of increased obstetric interventions and decreased services during the COVID-19 pandemic

Parental experiences with changes in maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-studies systematic review

“…Mothers’ intention to change or changed birth plans and location were also mentioned in qualitative studies [35] , [45] , [58] , [69] . During the pandemic, mothers were more likely to change from vaginal birth to planned caesarean [64] , [70] , and change from hospital birth to home birth [41] , [55] , [64] , [68] , [70] , [71] . In Schroder et al’s [68] study, reasons cited by mothers for the change to home birth were because they felt less safe in the hospital (20%), felt most safe in their surroundings (81%), and to avoid COVID-19 infections in the hospital (50%).…”

“…On the other hand, 73.4% of mothers in Stampini’s study [74] do not plan to or did not participate in the online birth course. The inadequacy of virtual appointments in meeting parents’ needs was reflected in qualitative findings as well [40] , [41] , [51] , [54] , [60] , [71] , where “a lot of women had fallen through the cracks (missed appointments) during the switch to virtual” [41] and parents were unsure if they were doing the birth exercises correctly [58] , [60] . The cancellation of in-person antenatal appointments and education created a sense of loss among parents as it removed a much-needed source of education for parents, especially new parents [40] , [43] , [44] , [51] , [56] , [59] , [60] , [75] , [76] .…”

“…Mothers were also concerned about not having physical check-ups to gauge whether their pregnancy was going fine [57] , [59] , [65] , [68] , [69] , [77] and whether the lack of in-person antenatal classes would affect their childbirth and childcare abilities [44] , [68] . In-person antenatal appointments were harder to schedule and reduced in frequency with shorter consultation time and longer intervals, which led to anxiety and nervousness among mothers, especially those with medical complications [40] , [41] , [44] , [51] , [57] , [59] , [69] , [71] , [73] , [78] . A survey by Meaney and colleagues [40] reported that 38.2% of mothers preferred more antenatal check-ups, and 34.3% found the interval between appointments to be too long and 35% would prefer more time with the healthcare professionals.…”

“…water birth) [44] , and pregnancy therapies (e.g. yoga, hydrotherapy, acupuncture) [44] , [71] during the pandemic period.…”

“…Few mothers reported feeling pressured to have an induction (25.7%) or the caesarean section (9.5%) [44] . While some deemed induction and the caesarean section as unnecessary [71] , most mothers elected for an earlier induction and operative birth to avoid the rising COVID-19 cases and unpredictability of hospital restrictions [44] , [50] , [58] , [71] .…”