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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter December 7, 2021

The postpartum period during the COVID-19 pandemic: investigating Turkish women’s postpartum support and postpartum-specific anxiety

  • Merve Kochan , Ayse Deliktas Demirci and Kamile Kabukcuoglu EMAIL logo

Abstract

Objectives

This study aimed to examine how Turkish women were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in the postpartum period in terms of postpartum support and anxiety variables.

Methods

The study was conducted with 130 women who gave birth during the COVID-19 period. Data were collected online using a personal information form, Postpartum Support Scale and Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale. Descriptive statistics were used, with Kruskal–Wallis and regression analysis performed.

Results

All postpartum women stated that they were affected negatively by COVID-19. The most common issues described were feeling alone (25.51%), having economic difficulties (15.5%) and experiencing difficulties accessing health services (21.7%). The mean Postpartum Support Scale score was 102.43 ± 27.67, while the mean Postpartum Specific Anxiety Scale score was 188.07 ± 96.71. COVID-19 exposure level had a significant effect on postpartum-specific anxiety (p=0.00). The variables of having a problem during pregnancy (p=0.006), having a baby willingly (p=0.007), and partner’s educational status significantly predicted the degree of being affected by COVID-19 (p=0.025). The degree to which COVID-19 affected the women was determined by having problems during pregnancy, having a baby willingly, and a highly educated partner.

Conclusions

These variables may inform a resource to empower postpartum women during COVID-19. Healthcare systems need to be organised considering pandemic conditions to provide increased postpartum support, evaluate psychological health, deliver healthcare services, and consider pregnancy periods.


Corresponding author: Kamile Kabukcuoglu, Professor, PhD, RN, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecological Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Akdeniz University, Dumlupınar Bulvarı, 07058, Antalya, Turkey, Phone: +905057970464, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

The authors would particularly like to thank all women who volunteered to participate in this study.

  1. Research funding: None declared.

  2. Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  3. Competing interests: The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.

  5. Ethical approval: Research involving human subjects complied with all relevant national regulations, institutional policies and is in accordance with the tenets of the Helsinki Declaration (as revised in 2013), and has been approved by the authors’ Institutional Review Board (Approval number: 523).

  6. Data availability: The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Received: 2021-05-19
Accepted: 2021-11-23
Published Online: 2021-12-07
Published in Print: 2022-03-28

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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