Navigating maternity service redesign in a global pandemic: A report from the field

Bailey, Elizabeth; Nightingale, Samantha

doi:10.1016/j.midw.2020.102780

Cited by 10 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Wards were closed down and some obstetrical units were moved to other buildings [20]. It was necessary to balance the requirement to separate infected and uninfected patients and staff with the urgent need to free as many beds as possible for intensive care patients [21,23].…”

Section: Dealing With Women With Positive Sars-cov-2 Test Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Maternity staff with parental duties had to coordinate the care for their children when schools and kindergartens closed [5,[17][18][19]. Hospitals needed to arrange exible duty rosters [20]. In New York, a physician described her attempt to balance her need to protect her own family against the needs of pregnant women who required continuous support at births, abortion appointments, prenatal examinations, and during medical treatment [19].…”

Section: Main Topic: Structural and Organizational Challenges A Staff Shortage And Restructuringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Germany, midwives were not initially included in essential professions, so they were not provided with emergency childcare [17]. Maternity staff with underlying conditions and pregnant professional staff had to undergo a risk assessment before they could go back to work [5,20]. Infected staff and staff in quarantine made the staff shortage in the UK worse.…”

Section: Main Topic: Structural and Organizational Challenges A Staff Shortage And Restructuringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Infected staff and staff in quarantine made the staff shortage in the UK worse. After the national call for selfisolation in the UK in March 2020, staff dropped out when they were infected and also as a precautionary measure after they came in contact with a Covid-19 patients [20]. In New York, a general 14-day quarantine was imposed on all staff members who spent longer than 10 minutes within 2 meters of a Covid-19-positive patient [21].…”

Section: Main Topic: Structural and Organizational Challenges A Staff Shortage And Restructuringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A complete set of protective clothing against contamination with Sars-CoV-2 consists of a respiratory mask (FFP2 or N95), a protective overall with hood, gloves, and protective goggles [5,20,26,[28][29][30][31]. Even in Europe protective clothing was not available everywhere [5,25,32].…”

Section: B Personal Protective Equipment and Testsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on maternity staff in 2020 – a scoping review

Schmitt

Mattern

Cignacco

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In the spring of 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 virus caused the Covid-19 pandemic, bringing with it drastic changes and challenges for health systems and medical staff. Among the affected were obstetricians and midwives, whose close physical contact with pregnant women, women who recently gave birth, and their children was indispensable. In the obstetric setting, births cannot be postponed, and maternity staff had to adapt to assure obstetric safety while balancing evidence-based standards with the new challenges posed by the pandemic. This scoping review gives a comprehensive overview of the effecs the Covid-19 pandemic had on maternity staff. We followed the evidence-based approach described by Arksey & O’Malley: we searched several databases for English and German articles published between January 2020 and January 2021 that discussed or touched upon the effects the pandemic had on maternity staff in OECD countries and China. We found that structural challenges caused by the crisis and its subjective effects on maternity staff fell into two main topic areas. Structural challenges (the first main topic) were divided into five subtopics: staff shortages and restructuring; personal protective equipment and tests; switching to virtual communication; handling women with a positive SARS-CoV-2 infection; and excluding accompanying persons. The pandemic also strongly affected the staff’s mental health (the second main topic.) Attempting to meet challenges posed by the pandemic while afraid of contamination, suffering overwork and exhaustion, and struggling to resolve ethical-moral dilemmas had severe negative subjective effects. Several studies indicated increased depression, anxiety, stress levels, and risk of post-traumatic stress symptoms, although the crisis also generated strong occupational solidarity. Care for pregnant, birthing, and breast-feeding women cannot be interrupted, even during a pandemic crisis that requires social distancing. Maternity staff sometimes had to abandon normal standards of obstetric care and were confronted with enormous challenges and structural adjustments that did not leave them unscathed: their mental health suffered considerably. Researchers should study maternity staff’s experiences during the pandemic to prepare recommendations that will protect staff during future epidemics.

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Section: Dealing With Women With Positive Sars-cov-2 Test Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%