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. 2022 Jan-Dec:18:17455057221125103.
doi: 10.1177/17455057221125103.

Perceived vulnerability to immigration policies among postpartum Hispanic/Latina women in the MADRES pregnancy cohort before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ixel Hernandez-Castro  1 , Claudia M Toledo-Corral  1   2 , Thomas Chavez  1 , Rima Habre  1 , Brendan Grubbs  3 , Laila Al-Marayati  3 , Deborah Lerner  4 , Nathana Lurvey  4 , Isabel Lagomasino  5 , Sandrah P Eckel  1 , Genevieve F Dunton  1   6 , Shohreh F Farzan  1 , Carrie V Breton  1 , Theresa M Bastain  1
Affiliations

Perceived vulnerability to immigration policies among postpartum Hispanic/Latina women in the MADRES pregnancy cohort before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ixel Hernandez-Castro et al. Womens Health (Lond). 2022 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Introduction and objectives: Research suggests that perceived immigration policy vulnerability has important health implications. Coupled with the mental and physical stressors accompanying the postpartum period and a growing awareness of the discrimination and structural racism experienced by marginalized communities globally, the coronavirus disease 2019 period may have exacerbated stress among vulnerable populations, specifically postpartum Hispanic/Latina women. This study evaluated perceived immigration policy vulnerability (i.e. discrimination, social isolation, and family threats) in early postpartum Hispanic/Latina women in Los Angeles before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Methods: The Perceived Immigration Policy Effects Scale (PIPES) was administered cross-sectionally at 1 month postpartum to 187 Hispanic/Latina women in the MADRES cohort. Respondents between September 2018 and March 2020 were classified as "pre-pandemic" (N = 128), between March 2020 and July 2020 as "early pandemic" (N = 38), and between August 2020 and November 2021 as "later pandemic" (N = 21). Average PIPES subscale scores were dichotomized into "higher" and "lower" groups (⩽median, >median) and logistic regression models were performed.

Results: Approximately half of participants had incomes of <$50,000 (50.3%) and were Latin American born (54.6%). After adjusting for age, nativity, education, income, postpartum distress, and employment status, early pandemic respondents had 5.05 times the odds of a higher score on the perceived discrimination subscale (95% CI: 1.81, 14.11), 6.47 times the odds of a higher score on the social isolation subscale (95% CI: 2.23, 18.74), 2.66 times the odds of a higher score on the family threats subscale (95% CI: 0.97, 7.32), and 3.36 times the odds of a higher total score (95% CI: 1.19, 9.51) when compared to pre-pandemic respondents. There were no significant subscale score differences between later pandemic and pre-pandemic periods.

Conclusion: Higher perceived immigration policy vulnerability was reported among postpartum women during the early coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic versus pre-pandemic periods. This suggests greater social inequities during the early pandemic period.

Keywords: COVID-19; immigration policy concerns; postpartum mental health; public health; women’s health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Consort diagram of maternal participants included in the analyses.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Locally Weighted Scatterplot Smoothing (LOWESS) of total PIPES scores across date the PIPES questionnaire was administered.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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