Experiences of Women Who Gave Birth in US Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  1. Elizabeth Mollard
  2. Amaya Wittmaack

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of women who gave birth in a US hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Women who gave birth between March and July 2020 completed a survey on the experience of giving birth during a pandemic. Of this, 885 women were consented and participated in the study; 22.5% of women reported hypertension, 33.8% reported anxiety, 18.6% reported depression, and 1.13% reported testing positive for COVID-19. Of this, 61% of women reported inadequate support for childbirth, and 20.5% reported that they did not feel safe giving birth in the hospital. Women who tested positive for COVID-19 were more likely to be of Asian race, have a cesarean delivery, not have a birth partner present, and discontinue breastfeeding before 6 weeks. Pandemic-related changes to maternity care practices may have impacted birthing women’s perceptions of safety and support in the hospital environment and affected symptoms of stress. Health care policy and maternity care practices should promote feelings of safety and control and overall experience for women giving birth in the hospital during a pandemic.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.10.15.20213504: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Informed consent and study data from an 80-item survey were collected and managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at the University of redacted Medical Center.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variableWe conducted a cross-sectional survey of women 18 years or older who gave birth in a hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) is a secure, web-based software platform designed to support data capture for research studies [17-18].
    REDCap
    suggested: (REDCap, RRID:SCR_003445)

    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:
    Limitations: There were several limitations in this study. First, our sample was recruited through social media and word of mouth, resulting in a sample not representative of the general population. This study collected self-reported data, which is naturally biased, including reports on retrospective experiences, some provided days after giving birth and others several months later. The length of time since giving birth and when a participant completed the study also affected how they reported the length of time they breastfed. The outcomes on women who reported testing positive for COVID-19, even when statistically significant, are unreliable due to the small sample size and not specifically separating COVID-19 positivity into during pregnancy, childbirth, or postpartum. Recommendations: Just as the COVID-19 virus is novel, the experiences of giving birth in the US during a pandemic of this magnitude are novel. Further research should be conducted prospectively on all women giving birth during a pandemic, focusing on both biological and psychosocial variables. The elevated levels of anxiety, depression, and hypertension in our sample deserve closer study. Future research should also focus on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic variables and how those may affect health and psychosocial outcomes in birthing mothers during a pandemic. Several registries of women positive with COVID-19 have been created and will hopefully begin addressing many health outcome questions in large sa...

    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.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    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.

  2. Version published to 10.1177/2374373520981492
  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.10.15.20213504v1 on medRxiv