Pregnancy alone can be an emotional and sometimes stressful journey but with the added stress of covid-19 this can cause mental health issues. During pregnancy women experience hormonal changes as well as being over emotional, these symptoms don’t help when being struck with a world-wide pandemic. Covid-19 caused disruption to the whole world massively affecting hospitals. This means it affects pregnant women when it comes to their appointments.
Changes to postnatal and prenatal care
Since covid-19 first came about in 2019 there has been a lot of changes to prenatal and postnatal care. Due to covid-19 guidelines and rules everyone had to social distance meaning changes to hospital appointments had to be made. They had restrictions on who was allowed to attend appointments. Meaning only the pregnant women were allowed to attend scans, alone. Not only did they have to attend alone they also had to wear face masks and take a covid test ensuring it was negative before attending any appointment.
Changes to midwife appointments were also made, you had to attend alone, and a lot of women had to travel to different places for their appointment. Midwife appointments mostly would have been at your doctors, but due to the pandemic and covid doctors were becoming overwhelmed with the number of patients. This means they had to make alternative arrangements and temporarily change the venue where the appointments were made.
Becoming a mom whether it is your first time or have done it before this time it’s all different to have it used to be. Attending classes whether it be a birthing class or new parent class, these were having to be cancelled. If they weren’t cancelled, they sure weren’t the same being as you had to still attend alone. These classes women tend to be joined by their partner and learn together but covid meant you couldn’t do so.
Changes to labour rules were also made, you were allowed to have 2 birthing partners but due to covid that changed. They made the decision to drop it down to one birthing partner. If they tested negative to covid beforehand. They were only allowed into the hospital towards the end of labour, meaning you had to cope with most of your labour alone.
Effects on your mental health
Everyone around the world was affected by covid-19 and the national lock down, some saying it negatively affected their mental health. So understandably a lot of women were admitting that covid-19 had massive effects on their mental health whilst pregnant during the pandemic.
Having to attend your appointments alone can lead you to feel lonely and isolated. Partners can feel disconnected from being a part of the pregnancy journey. Having someone with you makes you feel at ease being able to talk to your partner about your excitement or worries. Sitting alone in the waiting room you’re worried it’s your first scan that can cause you to have anxiety. Some women attended there first scan alone and had been told they had experienced a miscarriage. This is never an experience people want to go through especially not on their own and then having to break the news to their partner afterwards. This leaves you feeling helpless and extremely saddened.
These things can cause people to suffer from anxiety and depression.
Risk of anxiety
All these changes can lead to anxiety, your first scan didn’t go well and now you’re panicking about going to your other scans but alone. This can leave you feeling overwhelmed and lead you to overthinking.
As well as all the changes, you’re worried for the health of you and your baby. Having to attend hospital and doctor’s appointments whilst there is a risk of catching covid. This can negatively affect your mental health by causing worry. Catching covid could have an impact on your pregnancy and health. The thought of this would make you feel scared and fear, it causes you to have anxiety about going into hospitals and attending your appointments.
There are a lot of things related to the covid situation that can cause you to have anxiety whilst pregnant some include,
- Feeling distanced from your partner
- Risk of miscarriage due to Covid
- Preterm labour or stillbirth due to Covid
- Financial difficulties, a lot of people were furloughed or lost their job. This is not ideal and can cause stress to expecting mothers.
- Risk of catching Covid and becoming ill
- Fearing your partner catching Covid and not being able to attend the birth.
Depression
Covid-19 not only left everyone feeling isolated, but it caused pregnant people to feel alone. Lockdown took a toll on a lot of people’s mental health including an increase in depression. Pregnant women were isolating to keep themselves and their baby’s safe. Meaning they were missing out on socializing with their family and friends. This can be hard for them as pregnancy is a time you want to share with them. Not only that but pregnancy can be a struggle. some people need their family and friends to help them get through it.
Being pregnant was different from it was pre covid. It left expecting parents feeling down and fearing for the child’s future. Some pregnant people may have felt withdrawn from the outside world. This can leave you feeling stressed and feel all sorts of emotions. This isn’t your first pregnancy, and your other pregnancy was pre covid and you’re sad that this is a completely different experience.
Some other reasons pregnant people may be feeling depression symptoms include,
- Feeling lonely
- Not being able to enjoy their pregnancy
- Unable to socialise
- Being in lockdown and unable to leave the house
- Missing out on unusual pregnancy activities
Although things are slowly getting back to how it was pre Covid. Some people may still be struggling to get back to normality. You should always consult your health care professional if you are experiencing any mental health symptoms.
