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. 2023 Jan 30:7:2.
doi: 10.18332/ejm/157463. eCollection 2023.

Pregnancy during the pandemic: The psychological impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women in Greece

Athina Diamanti  1 , Antigoni Sarantaki  1 , Nafsika Kalamata  1 , Victoria Vivilaki  1 , Dimitra Varnakioti  1 , Aikaterini Lykeridou  1
Affiliations

Pregnancy during the pandemic: The psychological impact of COVID-19 on pregnant women in Greece

Athina Diamanti et al. Eur J Midwifery. .

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the overall health of people worldwide. Historically, pandemics pose a challenge to psychological resilience, causing heightened stress levels. This study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological state of pregnant women in Greece.

Methods: A survey study was conducted on a sample of 149 pregnant women in late 2020, including the 'fear of COVID-19' scale, a self-report instrument that assess fear of COVID-19 among the general population and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) scale which measures state and trait anxiety.

Results: Pregnant women with a mental health history tended to score higher on the 'fear of COVID-19' scale (mean ± SD: 19.48 ± 4.35) compared to pregnant women who had never had mental health problems before (17.12 ± 5.27). Moreover, pregnant women with anxiety as part of their personality tended to also score higher on the 'fear of COVID-19' scale. In all, 48.3% of pregnant women reported that their psychological state had been severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Conclusions: Pregnant women were highly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. A significantly increased 'fear of COVID-19' scale score was associated with self-reported pre-existence mental health conditions. Pregnant women with higher levels of 'trait anxiety' tended to report higher scores on the 'fear of COVID-19' scale.

Keywords: COVID-19; STAI scale; fear; maternal anxiety; perinatal mental health; pregnancy.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Likert scale results on ‘How much the psychology of pregnant women was affected by COVID-19 during their pregnancy’ (0: not at all, to 10: extremely)
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