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Abstract: The present study compared a group of women who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic with a group of women who gave birth in the antecedent period, using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EDPS) questionnaire. The results show a significant increase in the risk of developing postpartum depression and an increase in the use of epidurals in women who have given birth during the pandemic period. These findings are indicative of the impact the pandemic has also had on the childbirth experience.
Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, anhedonia, anxiety, depression, Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EDPS), postpartum depression
The periods of gestation and postpartum represent a delicate phase in the life of women, who are also more vulnerable from a psychic point of view. Contingent upon the presence of objective events (such as obstetric or fetal complications) and/or subjective experiences (fear, pain, lack of support), women can experience childbirth in a traumatic way (Chiorino et al., 2020). In the postpartum period, about 85% of women manifest forms of malaise or mood alterations mainly characterized by mild, transient symptoms and with spontaneous remission. However, 12%-20% of mothers experience more severe forms of postpartum depression (Heron et al., 2004; Henderson & Redshaw, 2013; Leigh & Milgrom, 2008; O'Hara & Swain, 1996), a disorder with a multi-faceted etiology, which includes multiple biological (Skalkidou et al., 2012), psychological (Jeong et al., 2013), socio-demographic, and obstetric-gynecological factors (Biaggi et al., 2016).
On March 11, 2020, the declaration of COVID-19's global pandemic status by the World Health Organization triggered numerous consequences on the health, political-economic, and social levels, and had equally critical psychological and emotional repercussions. As some researchers have already highlighted (Chen et al., 2020; OzamizEtxebarria et al., 2020), forms of psychological distress associated with anxiety, depression, and psycho-physical stress increased considerably in parallel with the progress of the state of health emergency.
Within this general framework, pregnant women appeared to be one of the most vulnerable groups in several respects. First, pregnancy involves physiological alterations of the immune system that challenge pregnant women to have greater difficulty fighting off viruses and respiratory infections (Ellington et al., 2020). Second, scientific evidence has already shown that catastrophic events (earthquakes, terrorist attacks, etc.) are important predictors for the development of postpartum depression (Maunder...