Case Study Vickys Assessment Strategy - amazonia.fiocruz.br

Disruption to motherhood

New mothers experienced worryingly high rates of depression and anxiety during the first lockdown, our new research has revealed. One of the major contributing factors to them feeling this way was the psychological impact of social distancing measures. Our study examined the psychological and social experiences Case Study Vickys Assessment Strategy over women with babies between birth and 12 weeks old during the first UK lockdown.

By clinically relevant, we mean mothers who scored above a certain threshold on questionnaires normally used by clinicians when they assess and diagnose mental health conditions. However, when we explored this further we actually found that a much higher proportion were experiencing depression and anxiety — they just did not have a formal clinical diagnosis yet.

Protect maternal wellbeing

This was revealed when we examined how many of the mothers scored above the clinical threshold on the mental health questionnaires they completed. The findings were deeply concerning.

This means that over a third of the women who met the criteria for depression and anxiety did not report having a current clinical diagnosis. We also asked mothers whether they felt their feelings or relationships had been affected by the introduction of social distancing measures.

Shop by category

Our analysis found that the perceived psychological impact of social distancing was the main contributing factor influencing feelings of depression and anxiety. Read more: Mental disorders are common for new parents — you don't have to go through it alone. It has been well established that the early postnatal period is a time of vulnerability for depression and anxiety.

But our study shows that maternal mental health after birth is compromised even further when combined with the stresses of the pandemic. During the first UK lockdown in Marchnew mothers experienced major disruptions to care and support.

These included reduced in person access to postnatal health services such as health visitor appointments, breastfeeding counselling and baby weigh-in clinics. New mothers had reduced social support from family and friends due to lockdown restrictions. Birth partners were also not able to support the mother during the labour and birth of their baby due to hospital visiting restrictions.]