Exploring the Prenatal and Postnatal Experiences of Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is an extremely infectious viral illness that emerged in Wuhan (China) in December 2019 and became a world-wide health issue in early 2020. Physical effects and some psychological implications have been studied using quantitative methodologies with relatively few qualitative research reported. Further, there is limited literature that focuses on the lived experiences of pre and postnatal women during the pandemic. As such, a phenomenological study was undertaken to explore the experiences of Australian women who were pregnant and birthed during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicate that the participants of this study encountered numerous, relevant and significant lifestyle and healthcare challenges following the onset of COVID-19. For instance, pre and postnatal experiences were vastly different to the participants idealisations and undetermined, inconsistent amendments to maternal health care and hospital policies had a noteworthy effect on wellbeing. Furthermore, this study revealed that strategies implemented during the height of the pandemic afforded the women little in terms of the pre and postnatal support the women and their partners anticipated or received. Thus, the outcome of this study was the development of strategies for health care professionals to consider and the emergence of benchmark information to assist women who are pregnant and will birth during a future pandemic.