Blakey Emma, Kuria Daniel, McGillion Michelle, Scott Fiona
School of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
School of Education, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2025 Jan 17;25(1):39. doi: 10.1186/s12884-024-07110-w.
New parenthood in ordinary times can be a vulnerable and unpredictable time. The Covid-19 pandemic brought additional, unprecedented changes to policy and practice that drastically impacted on the experiences of parents. This study aimed to enhance our understanding of the experiences of new parents during the pandemic by qualitatively analysing their experiences. New parents from the UK (N = 303; female = 296; male = 7) responded to a survey conducted between 2021-2022 asking about experiences of pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Responses were analysed thematically, taking an interpretivist approach, and drawing across the three time periods. Parents reported conflicting feelings, negative feelings and silver linings cutting across eight themes, including: impacts on well-being, feeling without a village, changes to healthcare, atypical social experiences as a new parent, differential impacts on financial and working lives, conflicting feelings around digital technology, anger and worry regarding contradictory government guidance and recommendations for other parents. The findings offer much needed insights into the experiences of new parents during this time and provide some context to the documented elevated levels of perinatal mental health difficulties in new parents during the pandemic. We suggest key recommendations going forwards in the care of new parents now, and in times of future national crisis.
在正常时期，初为人父母可能是一个脆弱且不可预测的阶段。新冠疫情给政策和实践带来了额外的、前所未有的变化，对父母的经历产生了巨大影响。本研究旨在通过对初为人父母者的经历进行定性分析，增进我们对疫情期间他们经历的理解。来自英国的初为人父母者（N = 303；女性 = 296；男性 = 7）回应了一项在2021年至2022年期间进行的调查，该调查询问了他们在怀孕、分娩和产后阶段的经历。采用解释主义方法，对三个时间段的回复进行了主题分析。父母们报告了贯穿八个主题的矛盾情绪、负面情绪和一线希望，这些主题包括：对幸福感的影响、感觉失去了社群支持、医疗保健的变化、初为人父母者的非典型社交经历、对财务和工作生活的不同影响、围绕数字技术的矛盾情绪、对政府相互矛盾的指导和对其他父母建议的愤怒和担忧。这些发现为这一时期初为人父母者的经历提供了急需的见解，并为疫情期间新父母围产期心理健康问题记录中显示的升高水平提供了一些背景信息。我们提出了当前以及未来国家危机时期照顾初为人父母者的关键建议。
