Associations between COVID-19 lockdown and post-lockdown on the mental health of pregnant women, postpartum women and their partners from the Queensland family cohort prospective study

Vicki L Clifton; Sailesh Kumar; Danielle Borg; Kym M Rae; Roslyn N Boyd; Koa Whittingham; Karen M Moritz; Hannah E Carter; Steven M McPhail; Brenda Gannon; Robert Ware; Barnaby J W Dixson; Samudragupta Bora; Cameron Hurst

doi:10.1186/s12884-022-04795-9

Associations between COVID-19 lockdown and post-lockdown on the mental health of pregnant women, postpartum women and their partners from the Queensland family cohort prospective study

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2022 Jun 4;22(1):468. doi: 10.1186/s12884-022-04795-9.

Authors

Vicki L Clifton¹, Sailesh Kumar², Danielle Borg², Kym M Rae^{2

3}, Roslyn N Boyd⁴, Koa Whittingham⁴, Karen M Moritz⁵, Hannah E Carter^{6

7}, Steven M McPhail^{6

7}, Brenda Gannon⁸, Robert Ware⁹, Barnaby J W Dixson^{10

11}, Samudragupta Bora², Cameron Hurst¹²

Affiliations

¹ Mater Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Raymond Terrace, Level 3, Aubigny Place, South Brisbane, QLD, 4101, Australia. vicki.clifton@mater.uq.edu.au.
² Mater Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Raymond Terrace, Level 3, Aubigny Place, South Brisbane, QLD, 4101, Australia.
³ Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁴ Faculty of Medicine, Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁵ School of Biomedical Sciences, the Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁶ Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation and Centre for Healthcare Transformation, School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
⁷ Clinical Informatics Directorate, Metro South Health, Brisbane, Australia.
⁸ Centre for the Business and Economics of Health and School of Economics, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁹ Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
¹⁰ School of Health and Behavioural Sciences, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.
¹¹ School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia.
¹² Molly Wardaguga Research Centre, Charles Darwin University, Queensland, Australia.

Abstract

Background: There are very few developed countries where physical isolation and low community transmission has been reported for COVID-19 but this has been the experience of Australia. The impact of physical isolation combined with low disease transmission on the mental health of pregnant women is currently unknown and there have been no studies examining the psychological experience for partners of pregnant women during lockdown. The aim of the current study was to examine the impact of the first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020 and post lockdown from August 2020 on the mental health of pregnant women or postpartum women and their partners.

Methods: Pregnant women and their partners were prospectively recruited to the study before 24 weeks gestation and completed various questionnaires related to mental health and general wellbeing at 24 weeks gestation and then again at 6 weeks postpartum. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) were used as outcome measures for the assessment of mental health in women and DASS-21 was administered to their partners. This analysis encompasses 3 time points where families were recruited; before the pandemic (Aug 2018-Feb 2020), during lockdown (Mar-Aug 2020) and after the first lockdown was over (Sept-Dec 2020).

Results: There was no significant effect of COVID-19 lockdown and post lockdown on depression or postnatal depression in women when compared to a pre-COVID-19 subgroup. The odds of pregnant women or postpartum women experiencing severe anxiety was more than halved in women during lockdown relative to women in the pre-COVID-19 period (OR = 0.47; 95%CI: 0.27-0.81; P = 0.006). Following lockdown severe anxiety was comparable to the pre-COVID-19 women. Lockdown did not have any substantial effects on stress scores for pregnant and postpartum women. However, a substantial decrease of over 70% in the odds of severe stress was observed post-lockdown relative to pre-COVID-19 levels. Partner's depression, anxiety and stress did not change significantly with lockdown or post lockdown.

Conclusion: A reproductive age population appear to be able to manage the impact of lockdown and the pandemic with some benefits related to reduced anxiety.

Keywords: Anxiety; COVID-19; Depression; Mental health; Postpartum; Pregnancy; Stress.

MeSH terms

Anxiety / epidemiology
COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Communicable Disease Control
Depression / epidemiology
Female
Humans
Mental Health
Postpartum Period / psychology
Pregnancy
Pregnant Women / psychology
Prospective Studies
Queensland / epidemiology
SARS-CoV-2

Abstract

MeSH terms

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