Making maternity and neonatal care personalised in the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from the Babies Born Better survey in the UK and the Netherlands

ASPIRE COVID-19 research team

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0267415

Making maternity and neonatal care personalised in the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from the Babies Born Better survey in the UK and the Netherlands

ASPIRE COVID-19 research team

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on women’s birth experiences. To date, there are no studies that use both quantitative and qualitative data to compare women’s birth experiences before and during the pandemic, across more than one country. Aim To examine women’s birth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the experiences of women who gave birth in the United Kingdom (UK) or the Netherlands (NL) either before or during the pandemic. Method This study is based on analyses of quantitative and qualitative data from the online Babies Born Better survey. Responses recorded by women giving birth in the UK and the NL between June and December 2020 have been used, encompassing women who gave birth between 2017 and 2020. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, and chi-squared tests were performed to compare women who gave birth pre- versus during pandemic and separately by country. Qualitative data was analysed by inductive thematic analysis. Findings Respondents in both the UK and the NL who gave birth during the pandemic were as likely, or, if they had a self-reported above average standard of life, more likely to rate their labour and birth experience positively when compared to women who gave birth pre-pandemic. This was despite the fact that those labouring in the pandemic reported a lack of support and limits placed on freedom of choice. Two potential explanatory themes were identified in the qualitative data: respondents had lower expectations of care during the pandemic, and they appreciated the efforts of staff to give individualised care, despite the rules. Conclusion Our study implies that many women labouring during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced restrictions, but their experience was mitigated by staff actions. However, personalised care should not be maintained by the good will of care providers, but should be a priority in maternity care policy to benefit all service users equitably.

Original language	English
Article number	e0267415
Journal	PLoS ONE
Volume	17
Issue number	11 November
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0267415
Publication status	Published - Nov 2022

Access to Document

10.1371/journal.pone.0267415

Cite this

@article{ed16a0e4ed564f71b4d22e34f7db3af9,

title = "Making maternity and neonatal care personalised in the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from the Babies Born Better survey in the UK and the Netherlands",

abstract = "Background The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on women{\textquoteright}s birth experiences. To date, there are no studies that use both quantitative and qualitative data to compare women{\textquoteright}s birth experiences before and during the pandemic, across more than one country. Aim To examine women{\textquoteright}s birth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the experiences of women who gave birth in the United Kingdom (UK) or the Netherlands (NL) either before or during the pandemic. Method This study is based on analyses of quantitative and qualitative data from the online Babies Born Better survey. Responses recorded by women giving birth in the UK and the NL between June and December 2020 have been used, encompassing women who gave birth between 2017 and 2020. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, and chi-squared tests were performed to compare women who gave birth pre- versus during pandemic and separately by country. Qualitative data was analysed by inductive thematic analysis. Findings Respondents in both the UK and the NL who gave birth during the pandemic were as likely, or, if they had a self-reported above average standard of life, more likely to rate their labour and birth experience positively when compared to women who gave birth pre-pandemic. This was despite the fact that those labouring in the pandemic reported a lack of support and limits placed on freedom of choice. Two potential explanatory themes were identified in the qualitative data: respondents had lower expectations of care during the pandemic, and they appreciated the efforts of staff to give individualised care, despite the rules. Conclusion Our study implies that many women labouring during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced restrictions, but their experience was mitigated by staff actions. However, personalised care should not be maintained by the good will of care providers, but should be a priority in maternity care policy to benefit all service users equitably.",

author = "{ASPIRE COVID-19 research team} and {van den Berg}, {Lauri M.M.} and Naseerah Akooji and Gill Thomson and {de Jonge}, Ank and Balaam, {Marie Clare} and Anastasia Topalidou and Soo Downe and George Ellison and Alan Fenton and Alexander Heazell and Carol Kingdon and Sarah Neal and Zoe Matthews and Alexandra Severns and Alison Wright and Jo Cull and Sarah Cordey and Nicola Crossland and Claire Feeley and Beata Franso and Steph Heys and Gill Moncrieff and Rebecca Nowland and Deborah Powney and Arni Sarian and Lucy Stone and Heidi Tranter and Joanne Harris and Maria Booker and Jane Sandall and Jim Thornton and Tisian Lynskey-Wilkie and Vanessa Wilson and Rebecca Abe and Tinuke Awe and Toyin Adeyinka and Ruth Bender-Atik and Lia Brigante and Rebecca Brione and Franka Cad{\'e}e and Elizabeth Duff and Tim Draycott and Duncan Fisher and Annie Francis and Arie Franx and Lucy Frith and Louise Griew and Clea Harmer and Caroline Homer and Marian Knight",

note = "Funding Information: This research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation{\textquoteright}s rapid response to COVID-19 [grant number ES/V004581/1]. Full details of the main study are available via ResearchRegistry (researchregistry5911) and via UKRI Gateway (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES %2FV004581%2F1). This research article was based on the Babies Born Better project that was developed as part of the EU-funded COST Action IS1405: BIRTH: {\textquoteleft}Building Intrapartum Research Through Health - an interdisciplinary whole system approach to understanding and contextualising physiological labour and birth,{\textquoteright} sustained by the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Programme as part of EU HORIZON 2020. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 van den Berg et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.",

year = "2022",

month = nov,

doi = "10.1371/journal.pone.0267415",

language = "English",

volume = "17",

journal = "PLoS ONE",

issn = "1932-6203",

publisher = "Public Library of Science",

number = "11 November",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Making maternity and neonatal care personalised in the COVID-19 pandemic

T2 - Results from the Babies Born Better survey in the UK and the Netherlands

AU - ASPIRE COVID-19 research team

AU - van den Berg, Lauri M.M.

AU - Akooji, Naseerah

AU - Thomson, Gill

AU - de Jonge, Ank

AU - Balaam, Marie Clare

AU - Topalidou, Anastasia

AU - Downe, Soo

AU - Ellison, George

AU - Fenton, Alan

AU - Heazell, Alexander

AU - Kingdon, Carol

AU - Neal, Sarah

AU - Matthews, Zoe

AU - Severns, Alexandra

AU - Wright, Alison

AU - Cull, Jo

AU - Cordey, Sarah

AU - Crossland, Nicola

AU - Feeley, Claire

AU - Franso, Beata

AU - Heys, Steph

AU - Moncrieff, Gill

AU - Nowland, Rebecca

AU - Powney, Deborah

AU - Sarian, Arni

AU - Stone, Lucy

AU - Tranter, Heidi

AU - Harris, Joanne

AU - Booker, Maria

AU - Sandall, Jane

AU - Thornton, Jim

AU - Lynskey-Wilkie, Tisian

AU - Wilson, Vanessa

AU - Abe, Rebecca

AU - Awe, Tinuke

AU - Adeyinka, Toyin

AU - Bender-Atik, Ruth

AU - Brigante, Lia

AU - Brione, Rebecca

AU - Cadée, Franka

AU - Duff, Elizabeth

AU - Draycott, Tim

AU - Fisher, Duncan

AU - Francis, Annie

AU - Franx, Arie

AU - Frith, Lucy

AU - Griew, Louise

AU - Harmer, Clea

AU - Homer, Caroline

AU - Knight, Marian

N1 - Funding Information: This research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19 [grant number ES/V004581/1]. Full details of the main study are available via ResearchRegistry (researchregistry5911) and via UKRI Gateway (https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES %2FV004581%2F1). This research article was based on the Babies Born Better project that was developed as part of the EU-funded COST Action IS1405: BIRTH: ‘Building Intrapartum Research Through Health - an interdisciplinary whole system approach to understanding and contextualising physiological labour and birth,’ sustained by the COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Programme as part of EU HORIZON 2020. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: Copyright: © 2022 van den Berg et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2022/11

Y1 - 2022/11

N2 - Background The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on women’s birth experiences. To date, there are no studies that use both quantitative and qualitative data to compare women’s birth experiences before and during the pandemic, across more than one country. Aim To examine women’s birth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the experiences of women who gave birth in the United Kingdom (UK) or the Netherlands (NL) either before or during the pandemic. Method This study is based on analyses of quantitative and qualitative data from the online Babies Born Better survey. Responses recorded by women giving birth in the UK and the NL between June and December 2020 have been used, encompassing women who gave birth between 2017 and 2020. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, and chi-squared tests were performed to compare women who gave birth pre- versus during pandemic and separately by country. Qualitative data was analysed by inductive thematic analysis. Findings Respondents in both the UK and the NL who gave birth during the pandemic were as likely, or, if they had a self-reported above average standard of life, more likely to rate their labour and birth experience positively when compared to women who gave birth pre-pandemic. This was despite the fact that those labouring in the pandemic reported a lack of support and limits placed on freedom of choice. Two potential explanatory themes were identified in the qualitative data: respondents had lower expectations of care during the pandemic, and they appreciated the efforts of staff to give individualised care, despite the rules. Conclusion Our study implies that many women labouring during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced restrictions, but their experience was mitigated by staff actions. However, personalised care should not be maintained by the good will of care providers, but should be a priority in maternity care policy to benefit all service users equitably.

AB - Background The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on women’s birth experiences. To date, there are no studies that use both quantitative and qualitative data to compare women’s birth experiences before and during the pandemic, across more than one country. Aim To examine women’s birth experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare the experiences of women who gave birth in the United Kingdom (UK) or the Netherlands (NL) either before or during the pandemic. Method This study is based on analyses of quantitative and qualitative data from the online Babies Born Better survey. Responses recorded by women giving birth in the UK and the NL between June and December 2020 have been used, encompassing women who gave birth between 2017 and 2020. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively, and chi-squared tests were performed to compare women who gave birth pre- versus during pandemic and separately by country. Qualitative data was analysed by inductive thematic analysis. Findings Respondents in both the UK and the NL who gave birth during the pandemic were as likely, or, if they had a self-reported above average standard of life, more likely to rate their labour and birth experience positively when compared to women who gave birth pre-pandemic. This was despite the fact that those labouring in the pandemic reported a lack of support and limits placed on freedom of choice. Two potential explanatory themes were identified in the qualitative data: respondents had lower expectations of care during the pandemic, and they appreciated the efforts of staff to give individualised care, despite the rules. Conclusion Our study implies that many women labouring during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced restrictions, but their experience was mitigated by staff actions. However, personalised care should not be maintained by the good will of care providers, but should be a priority in maternity care policy to benefit all service users equitably.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85143181047&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0267415

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0267415

M3 - Article

C2 - 36449488

AN - SCOPUS:85143181047

SN - 1932-6203

VL - 17

JO - PLoS ONE

JF - PLoS ONE

IS - 11 November

M1 - e0267415

ER -

Making maternity and neonatal care personalised in the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from the Babies Born Better survey in the UK and the Netherlands

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this