New mothers negatively impacted by COVID-19 pandemic policies

Giving birth can be a joyous, yet stressful experience in the best of times - but what happens when a global public health crisis is thrown into the mix? McGill University and the University of Toronto researchers examined the effects certain pandemic policies have had on the mental health of Canadian women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, recently published in CMAJ Open , focused on the impacts and unintended fallouts of policies rapidly implemented to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and the discrepancies between aspects of care considered essential and non-essential in the case of birth giving and postpartum aftercare. Little to no support for new mothers . The researchers examined how pandemic-safety policies were tied to increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression and how they exacerbated struggles faced by new mothers. "From this study and from prior, large-scale online survey research, we know that the pandemic and pandemic policies isolated new parents more than normal and had a huge impact on postpartum mental health. What was missing until now is an in-depth look at the experiences that underscore this. Our study points to exactly which pandemic policies have posed serious challenges for pregnant people and new parents and shows the unintended outcomes of these." explains Kathleen Rice, Assistant Professor in McGill's Department of Family Medicine and co-author of the study.