Supporting Perinatal Mental Health and Wellbeing during COVID-19

Abstract

Mental health is especially important as women transition into parenthood. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the rapid reconfiguration of maternity services, including perinatal mental healthcare, as offered by Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Midwives, in NHS Trusts in the United Kingdom. This article represents work undertaken in rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to document the findings from March 2020 up until May 2021 in literature published on perinatal mental health through the pandemic, as well as to engage in a knowledge mapping exercise across five NHS Trusts in London. In this research, we utilised a critical review methodology which purposefully selects and synthesises materials after extensive literature searching to provide a broad and informed narrative around an issue. For our knowledge mapping exercise, we utilised an inclusive stance to gather, pool, and synthesise data from five NHS Trusts regarding the provisions and reconfigurations of their perinatal mental health services, creating a comparable and translatable snapshot in time. Our rapid, critical review highlighted two themes: ‘Increased Perinatal Distress’ and ‘Inaccessible Services and Support’. Our knowledge mapping exercise produced four themes: ‘Retention of Existing Service Provision’; ‘Additional Services Provided’; ‘Reconfiguration of Service Provision’; ‘Additional Provision to Support Staff Wellbeing’. We conclude by offering best practice guidance in order to provide shared learning to aid the transition through para-pandemic circumstances to service delivery in a post-pandemic ‘new normal’.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on stress and other psychological factors in pregnant women giving birth during the first wave of the pandemic

“…During the lockdown measures, there were also strict visitor regulations in German obstetric departments, hospital wards and delivery rooms. A higher stress level and prevalence of anxiety for pregnant women were shown at the onset of the pandemic and restrictive measures in previous studies [26][27][28][29].…”

Navigating uncertainty alone: A grounded theory analysis of women’s psycho-social experiences of pregnancy and childbirth during the COVID-19 pandemic in London

“…It could be said that not only women were navigating uncertainly alone, but so too were their partners. The importance of social support during labour is well-established [47] , [48] and the impact of disrupted maternity care [12] and isolation from social restrictions on the psycho-social support and emotional wellbeing of pregnant and postpartum women [18] , [22] , [45] , [49] and their partners cannot be underestimated during labour or postnatally.…”

Precarity and preparedness during the SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic: A qualitative service evaluation of maternity healthcare professionals

“…The prolonged and cumulative effect of endemic precarity, and the un(der)‐prepared service, and the health system shock was occasionally seen as a chance to innovate and transform, 38 albeit usually with a top‐down or “command and control” style approach, which was not always appraised positively. Furthermore, innovation has often been reported as a proxy term for the reality of time being spent on paring back services and delivering only essential care causing poorer outcomes for women, their families, and their babies; 2 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 and demoralizing staff who did not believe they were providing the level of care they ought to and were trained to deliver.…”