Children and COVID-19 Research Library

COVID-19 vaccines are advised for pregnant women in the United Kingdom (UK) however COVID-19 vaccine uptake among pregnant women is inadequate. An online survey and semi-structured interviews were used to investigate pregnant women’s views on COVID-19 vaccine acceptability for themselves when pregnant, not pregnant and for their babies. One thousand one hundred eighty-one women, aged over 16 years, who had been pregnant since 23rd March 2020, were surveyed between 3rd August–11th October 2020. Ten women were interviewed.

The present study aims to examine the impact of the time spent by mothers at home with their children during the quarantine period that was implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the mothers’ child-rearing attitudes, taking into consideration some variables and the experiences of mothers. The study was designed using embedded mixed design, in which qualitative and quantitative research methods were used together. The quantitative research group consisted of 673 mothers and the qualitative research group consisted of 16 mothers. The research data was gathered online using the Lime Survey platform, and the interviews with the mothers were also held online. Demographic information form, the Child Rearing Attitude Scale, and a semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools. Moderator variable analysis was used for the quantitative research data and descriptive analysis was used for the qualitative research data in support of the quantitative data.

This study used latent profile analysis on a longitudinal dataset to examine changes in maternal and child mental health during COVID-19 and factors that may protect against declines in mental health. Participants were 183 low-income mothers (M = 36 years) with young children (M = 5.31 years) in the City of Toronto with data collected prior to and during the pandemic in 2020. Mothers reported on their own stress, anxiety and depression and their children's emotional, conduct, hyperactivity, peer, and prosocial problems at both timepoints.

The current study assessed the associations between pandemic-related stressors and physiological stress, as indexed by hair cortisol concentration (HCC), for mothers and their children (N = 180) aged 5–14-years old (M = 8.91). The associations between maternal HCC and children’s HCC and children’s behavioral adjustment were also examined. Mothers reported on COVID-19-related behaviors and children’s adjustment, and both mother and child participants collected and mailed hair samples between August and November of 2020.

In this study, it was aimed to determine the difficulties in receiving care for infants who are in neonatal intensive care during the pandemic process. In this phenomenological study, interviews were conducted with semi-structured questions with the participants. While collecting the data, both observation and interview techniques were used. The situations that prevent getting care from nurses are as follows. The inability to establish skin-to-skin contact with the infant, the problems caused by the equipment that nurses have to wear, and the fear of COVID-19. Conditions that prevent receiving care from the mother are as follows: removal of family visits, interruption of kangaroo care, failure to initiate breastfeeding. As a result, infants faced many difficulties in receiving care during the pandemic period and their care could not be applied properly and regularly.

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has impacted families’ mental health around the globe. In June 2020, 1163 parents of high (43%), middle (47%), and low socioeconomic status (SES) (10%) participated in an online survey developed to explore how daily life changes and restrictions that came with COVID-19 affected the experiences of pregnancy and/or parenting children under the age of 5 in Chile. The survey's design had an exploratory and descriptive scope, with a mix of qualitative and quantitative questions. With the aim of exploring differences before and after COVID-19, two time periods were established, and the 47-item questionnaire covered participants’ sociodemographic information, support networks, health concerns, mood changes, self-regulation, adult and children's perceived well-being, parental competencies and parents’ perceptions of the unborn baby and/or their children's needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing isolation stressed pregnant and postpartum women and their families pervasively. This necessitated addressing young families’ mental health needs while protecting both patients and providers from COVID-19 exposure. Our experience of rapidly adapting Pregnancy, Maternal Postpartum Peer Support, and Mother–Infant Postpartum Group interventions to high-quality telehealth modalities elucidates benefits and challenges of mother–infant dyadic treatment amidst the pandemic. This study compares 2019 in-person and 2020 telehealth services during the period from mid-March through mid-December in each year. Initial program Warmline contacts were similar across years despite pandemic-related restrictions, with 2020 program contacts surpassing the 147 unique patient outreaches during the commensurate 2019 period.

Because breastfeeding offers short- and long- term health benefits to mothers and children, breastfeeding promotion and support is a public health priority. Evidence shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not likely to be transmitted via breastmilk. Moreover, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are thought to be contained in breastmilk of mothers with history of COVID-19 infection or vaccination. WHO recommends direct breastfeeding as the preferred infant feeding option during the COVID-19 pandemic, even among women with COVID-19; but conflicting practices have been adopted, which could widen existing inequities in breastfeeding. This study aims to describe how information about breastfeeding was communicated in Mexican media during the pandemic and assess Mexican adults’ beliefs regarding breastfeeding among mothers infected with COVID-19.

Maternal prenatal anxiety is among important public health issues as it may affect child development. However, there are not enough studies to examine the impact of a mother's anxiety on the child's early development, especially up to 1 year. The present prospective cohort study aimed to examine whether maternal trait anxiety, perceived social support, and COVID-19 related fear impacted speech-language, sensory-motor, and socio-emotional development in 12 months old Serbian infants during the COVID-19 pandemic. This follow-up study included 142 pregnant women (Time 1) and their children at 12 months (Time 2). Antenatal maternal anxiety and children's development were examined. Maternal anxiety was assessed using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Child speech-language, sensory-motor, and socio-emotional development were assessed using the developmental scale in the form of an online questionnaire that examined the early psychophysiological child development. Information on socioeconomic factors, child and maternal demographics, clinical factors, and perceived fear of COVID-19 viral infection were collected. Multivariable General Linear Model analysis was conducted, adjusted for demographic, clinical, and coronavirus prenatal experiences, maternal prenatal anxiety levels, perceived social support, speech-language, motor skills, and cognitive and socio-emotional development at the infants' age of 12 months.

The pregnant population experienced unique COVID-19 physical and psychosocial stressors such as direct health concerns related to the virus and loss of access to resources since the COVID-19 emerged as a global pandemic in early 2020. Despite these COVID-19-related stress and concerns, the maternal experience of bonding with their unborn children has not been well studied. This work aimed to study the association between mental health history, current mental health symptoms, psychological factors, COVID-19-related worries, and self-reported maternal-fetal bonding of pregnant women. This online, survey-based cross-sectional study focused on women pregnant during the pandemic and assessed 686 women using data collected from May 19, 2020 to October 3, 2020. Enrolled respondents completed assessments in which they self-reported maternal-fetal bonding, mental health symptomatology, psychological factors, and COVID-19-related worries regarding health, pregnancy, and resources.

This paper aimed to explore factors associated with depression and COVID-19 related fear among pregnant women and new mothers. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in China from July 2020 to July 2021. A total of 3027 pregnant and new mothers were recruited. Sociodemographic characteristics and the perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic were collected. The Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Fear Scale was used to assess the depressive and fear level towards the COVID-19 pandemic, respectively.

The early postpartum period is recognized cross-culturally as being important for recovery, with new parents receiving increased levels of community support. However, COVID-19-related lockdown measures may have disrupted these support systems, with possible implications for mental health. This study uses a cross-sectional analysis among individuals who gave birth at different stages of the pandemic to test (i) if instrumental support access in the form of help with household tasks, newborn care, and care for older children has varied temporally across the pandemic, and (ii) whether access to these forms of instrumental support is associated with lower postpartum depression scores. This study used data from the COVID-19 And Reproductive Effects (CARE) study, an online survey of pregnant persons in the United States. Participants completed postnatal surveys between April 30 – November 18, 2020 (n = 971). Logistic regression analysis tested whether birth timing during the pandemic was associated with odds of reported sustained instrumental support. Linear regression analyses assessed whether instrumental support was associated with lower depression scores as measured via the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression survey.