Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 13, Pages 80: Maternal Psychopathological Profile during Childbirth and Neonatal Development during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pre-Posttest Study

Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 13, Pages 80: Maternal Psychopathological Profile during Childbirth and Neonatal Development during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Pre-Posttest Study

Behavioral Sciences doi: 10.3390/bs13020080

Authors: Sergio Martinez-Vazquez Blanca Riquelme-Gallego Leydi Jhoansy Lugo-Toro Lidia Lucena-Prieto Nathalia Garrido-Torres Teresa Lopez-Soto Rafael A. Caparros-Gonzalez Alejandro De la Torre-Luque

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 generated an alert that became a state of emergency in health issues worldwide, a situation that affected the entire population, including pregnant women. The present study aims to understand the effect of the psychopathological profile of a sample of pregnant women at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic on themselves during childbirth (Phase 1) and after childbirth and the anthropometric measures of the neonate at birth (Phase 2). The total sample comprises 81 pregnant women aged 32.07 years (SD = 5.45) and their neonates. Sociodemographic and obstetric data of the sample were collected. During pregnancy, psychopathology was measured by means of the SCL-90, as well as other psychological measures on stress and social support. Cluster k-means techniques were used to uncover the heterogeneous profiles of psychopathology in Phase 1. Two main psychopathological profiles were found (Cluster 1: High psychopathological symptoms; Cluster 2: Low psychopathological symptoms). The clusters generated show significant differences in all the SCL-90-R subscales used and in the general index at Phase 1. After childbirth, high psychopathology profile membership was associated with a greater probability of having a non-eutocic delivery. On the other hand, the low psychopathological symptoms cluster shows higher levels of depressive symptoms, hostility, paranoid ideation, and psychotic symptoms in Phase 2. In conclusion, there seemed to exist two heterogeneous profiles of psychopathology in pregnant women during the pandemic; the stress related to the pandemic seemed uninfluential on the development of a profile of high psychopathological symptoms and the psychopathology profile may influence delivery and postpartum outcomes.