COVID-19 positivity associated with traumatic stress response to childbirth and no visitors and infant separation in the hospital
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread globally, a significant portion of pregnant and delivering women were infected with COVID-19. While emerging studies examined birth outcomes in COVID-19 positive women, knowledge of the psychological experience of childbirth and maternal wellness remains lacking. This matched-control survey-based study included a sample of women recruited during the first wave of the pandemic in the US who gave birth in the previous six months. Women reporting confirmed/suspected COVID-19 (n = 68) during pregnancy or childbirth were matched on background factors with women reporting COVID-19 negativity (n = 2,276). We found nearly 50% of COVID positive women endorsed acute traumatic stress symptoms at a clinical level in response to childbirth. This group was more than twice as likely to endorse acute stress and to have no visitors during maternity hospitalization than COVID negative women; they were also less likely to room-in with newborns. The COVID positive group reported higher levels of pain in delivery, lower newborn weights, and more infant admission to neonatal intensive care units. Our findings suggest COVID-19 affected populations are at increased risk for traumatic childbirth and associated risk for psychiatric morbidity. Attention to delivering women’s wellbeing is warranted during the pandemic.
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The sample includes women who gave birth before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this heterogeneity may have affected our results and warrants replication in other postpartum samples.
“The sample includes women who gave birth before and during the COVID-19 pandemic62,63. This heterogeneity, including the possibility that women used different language in their narratives during the pandemic, may have affected our results and warrants replication in other postpartum samples.”
From AI and narrative embeddings detect PTSD following childbirth via birth stories (2024) · cites this paper as [63]
The Participants section (page unavailable) says this paper’s sample comprised women who gave birth after COVID-19 was prevalent in their communities, supporting the pandemic-birth part of the citing sentence. It does not support the pre-pandemic-birth part; the subsequent concern about narrative language and replication is the citing authors’ own interpretation. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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References 35 · Cited by 55
- Authors
- Mayopoulos, G. A., Ein-Dor, T., Li, K. G., Chan, S. J., & Dekel, S.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dekel, Sharon
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2021-06-29
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 13535-13535
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7724672
- OpenAlex
- W3176815382
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 9.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (submittedVersion)
- PubMed Central (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R21HD100817)
- MGH Executive Committee on Research
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Obstetrics and Gynecology › COVID-19 Impact on Reproduction
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, childbirth, traumatic stress, acute stress symptoms, maternal mental health, infant separation, rooming-in, neonatal intensive care, newborn weight, psychiatric morbidity, maternal well-being
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