Beck Abaki, Osman Ingie, Watson Ashley, Branham Cheri, Seaver Brittany, Smith Aparea, Marsh Noël L, Sufrin Carolyn, Shlafer Rebecca J
School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware Street S.E, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
Health Justice. 2025 Sep 2;13(1):54. doi: 10.1186/s40352-025-00359-z.
Prisons are well understood to be hotspots of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, little is known about the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on pregnant and postpartum people in prison. We conducted a secondary analysis of 63 semi-structured qualitative interviews (December 2021-May 2023) with subject matter experts, primarily perinatal program staff working in prisons, to better understand how perinatal support programs for people in prison were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We identified nine themes in interviews as impacting perinatal support programming for incarcerated pregnant and postpartum people during the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) prison COVID-19 preventative practices and their influences on perinatal support programs; 2) COVID-19 quarantine and confinement of pregnant and postpartum people; 3) changes in the pregnant and postpartum population and reentry support; 4) changes to birth support during incarceration; 5) lack of communication and inconsistency between the DOC and perinatal support programs; 6) DOC staffing and staff turnover; 7) lack of access to volunteer-led programming and visiting; 8) relationships between perinatal support programs and DOC healthcare providers; and 9) relationships between perinatal support programs and hospitals. Results were organized into a modified socioecological model, allowing us to view different spheres of influence, how they interact and overlap, and as we describe in the discussion section, where practitioners and policy-makers might intervene. In particular, we focused on the organizational, relational, and structural levels, with multiple themes organized into each level. All of these themes, together, help provide information on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted perinatal support programs in prisons.
The COVID-19 pandemic had drastic impacts on prison operations and perinatal support programs, with cascading influences on the health and wellbeing of pregnant and postpartum people who are incarcerated. We conclude with a series of recommendations, developed by the research team and a community research council of formerly incarcerated individuals, that aim to address pandemic-related health disparities and promote health equity among those disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
监狱被公认为是新冠疫情的热点地区。然而，对于新冠疫情对监狱中怀孕和产后人员的影响却知之甚少。我们对63次半结构化定性访谈（2021年12月至2023年5月）进行了二次分析，访谈对象主要是监狱中的围产期项目工作人员等主题专家，以更好地了解监狱中针对怀孕和产后人员的围产期支持项目是如何受到新冠疫情影响的。
我们在访谈中确定了九个影响新冠疫情期间被监禁的怀孕和产后人员围产期支持项目的主题：1）监狱的新冠疫情预防措施及其对围产期支持项目的影响；2）对怀孕和产后人员的新冠疫情隔离和监禁；3）怀孕和产后人群的变化及重新融入支持；4）监禁期间分娩支持的变化；5）惩教部门与围产期支持项目之间缺乏沟通和不一致；6）惩教部门的人员配备和人员流动；7）缺乏参与志愿者主导项目和探访的机会；8）围产期支持项目与惩教部门医疗服务提供者之间的关系；9）围产期支持项目与医院之间的关系。研究结果被整理成一个经过修改的社会生态模型，使我们能够看到不同的影响领域、它们如何相互作用和重叠，并且正如我们在讨论部分所描述的，从业者和政策制定者可能进行干预的地方。特别是，我们关注组织、关系和结构层面，每个层面都包含多个主题。所有这些主题共同有助于提供有关新冠疫情如何影响监狱围产期支持项目的信息。
新冠疫情对监狱运营和围产期支持项目产生了巨大影响，对被监禁的怀孕和产后人员的健康和福祉产生了连锁反应。我们最后提出了一系列由研究团队和一个由曾被监禁者组成的社区研究委员会制定的建议，旨在解决与疫情相关的健康差距，并促进在受新冠疫情影响尤为严重的人群中实现健康公平。
