Lockdown babies: Birth and new parenting experiences during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa, a cross-sectional study

  1. Elise Farley
  2. Amanda Edwards
  3. Emma Numanoglu
  4. Tamsin K. Phillips

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.wombi.2021.09.001
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.05.20.21257537: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: Ethical statement: Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Cape Town Human Research Ethics Committee (385/2020).
    Consent: Informed consent was obtained from all respondents by asking them to first read the information sheet and then provide consent by selecting the ‘Yes’ button on the online survey.
    Sex as a biological variableAnalysis: Due to the small sample size of male respondents (n=24), we conducted separate analyses on responses from female and male respondents.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    All quantitative data analysis was conducted with Stata 15 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA).
    StataCorp
    suggested: (Stata, RRID:SCR_012763)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    One of the main limitations of our study is that the sample of parents who responded to the survey do not represent the vast majority of South African citizens. The use of convenience sampling in order to rapidly recruit participants in a short window of time resulted in our study sample being mainly degreed, married, middle-to high-income earners who had their babies in private hospitals. The findings from our study can thus only be generalised to this portion of the population. Future studies need to investigate the birth and new parenting experiences in populations of lower socioeconomic status and of public sector patients. The use of convenience sampling, further limiting the generalisability of our results [27]. There is also the potential for recall bias in this study due to the differing lengths of time between the birth and completion of survey, and it is difficult to tease out the independent effects of the lockdown levels of different postpartum periods. Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown exacerbated many of the usual challenges of birth and new parenting. Mental health was a key challenge, along with difficulties accessing support. However, overall experiences were positive and there was a strong sense of resilience amongst parents. As the world continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic on all fronts, efforts to support new parents during this critical phase should not be neglected.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No funding statement was detected.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.20.21257537v1 on medRxiv
  4. Version published to 10.1101/2021.05.20.21257537v2 on medRxiv