COVID Fuels Depression In Pregnant Women, New Moms

By Cara Murez
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) — COVID-19 could also be behind a regarding rise within the variety of girls struggling nervousness and despair earlier than and shortly after childbirth, a brand new research says.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston surveyed greater than 1,100 pregnant and postpartum girls between May 21 and Aug. 17. They discovered that 36%, or greater than 1 in 3, had important ranges of despair. Prior to the pandemic, charges of perinatal despair had been about 15% to twenty%.

More than 1 in 5 girls reported important ranges of generalized nervousness. About 1 in 10 had post-traumatic stress dysfunction above the medical threshold.

“We know the perinatal period is already a time in which women are particularly vulnerable to mental health concerns,” mentioned research writer Cindy Liu, of the Departments of Pediatric Newborn Medicine and Psychiatry.

“We primarily wanted to see what factors related to the pandemic might be associated with mental health symptoms,” she mentioned in a hospital information launch.

The researchers used standardized measures to guage COVID-19-related well being worries and experiences of grief.

“We were looking for associations that inform what we can do as clinical providers to better support families during this time,” mentioned co-author Dr. Carmina Erdei, of the Department of Pediatric Newborn Medicine.

“We wanted to know what is being taken away when a new mother is not able to participate in the usual rituals around birth and welcoming a new family member. The survey responses offer valuable insight into that and help guide what we as health care professionals can do better,” she mentioned within the launch.

About 9% of recent moms mentioned they felt a robust sense of grief, loss or disappointment due to the pandemic. This group was 5 instances extra prone to expertise important psychological well being signs, in accordance with the research.

More girls, about 18%, mentioned they felt very apprehensive or extraordinarily apprehensive about COVID-19 well being dangers. This group was 4 instances extra prone to expertise clinically important psychiatric signs, the research reported. Researchers additionally discovered that folks with preexisting psychological well being diagnoses had been about two to 4 instances extra prone to expertise important measures of despair, nervousness or PTSD.

The survey responses mirror what researchers noticed clinically through the early months of the pandemic, when lots of the regular perinatal helps had been restricted as a result of fears surrounding COVID-19 an infection dangers.

Obstetric practices weren’t in a position to display for psychological well being signs as effectively, all whereas individuals’s psychological well being was underneath essentially the most strain, the authors famous. Since then, nevertheless, psychological well being helps have come again in new methods, particularly by digital platforms.

Study limitations embody {that a} excessive share of individuals had been white and college-educated. About 45% had a family revenue above $150,000. The analysis is lacking the views of different necessary segments of the inhabitants, Liu mentioned.

The analysis was revealed on-line just lately in Psychiatry Research.

More data

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention affords extra on COVID-19 and being pregnant.

SOURCE: Brigham and Women’s Hospital, information launch, Dec. 1, 2020