Pregnancy, breastfeeding and loneliness during COVID-19
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A desire to understand pregnancy and postpartum experiences during the early COVID-19 pandemic led UIC Nursing assistant professor Ellen Goldstein, PhD, MFT, and Penn State family medicine physician Aleksandra Zgierska, MD, PhD, to conduct a survey of patients from two large health care systems in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2020 and 2021.
Their findings are now the topics of two papers—one on breastfeeding and the other on loneliness—as part of a special double issue of the Wisconsin Medical Journal on Maternal and Child Health.
Loneliness
Nearly 50% of 613 respondents reported being lonely, according to the first paper, “COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Perceived Loneliness as a Potential Risk Factor for Worse Outcomes Among People Who are Pregnant or Postpartum.” Those who screened positive for loneliness reported more pregnancy complications, worse depression, anxiety and stress symptoms, and were more likely to have a mood disorder and receive mental health treatment, according to the paper. They were also more likely to be first-time parents.
“With this paper, I think what was surprising was that first-time mothers were most affected,” Goldstein says. “Being first-time mothers, there’s a certain amount of uneasiness about what to expect. And now they’re in the early pandemic and they don’t have the support system that they maybe would or could have had otherwise.”
She adds: “That’s a group that we want to pay attention to particularly in times of stress.”
The findings are important because they illustrate the associations between perceived loneliness and negative health measures, including pregnancy outcomes, according to the paper.
Breastfeeding
The pandemic had some positive effects on the decision and ability to breastfeed, according to the second paper, “Enablers and Challenges of Breastfeeding During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” in which Goldstein was senior author. This paper was based on 216 respondents to the survey.
Some participants indicated that they placed more of an emphasis on breastfeeding due to the immune-building benefits. Being at home more, including working from home, made it more convenient and easier to breastfeed.
“A lot more people were staying at home at that time and working remotely, so that made it easier and also allowed some people to be able to breastfeed longer,” Goldstein says.
There were also negative effects, including reduced support and increased stress and isolation. The lack of in-person lactation support during the pandemic caused some respondents to stop breastfeeding.
The authors note that the findings highlight the need to review best practices to support breastfeeding for working parents. As of 2020, fewer than 20% of the female workforce had access to paid family leave following birth, despite the fact that longer maternity leave is shown to increase the duration of breastfeeding, according to the paper.