Supporting Perinatal Mental Health and Wellbeing during COVID-19

TY - JOUR

T1 - Supporting Perinatal Mental Health and Wellbeing during COVID-19

AU - Bridle, Laura

AU - Walton, Laura

AU - van der Vord, Tessa

AU - Adebayo, Olawunmi

AU - Hall, Suzy

AU - Finlayson, Emma

AU - Easter, Abigail

AU - Silverio, Sergio A.

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgments: S.A.S and A.E. are currently supported by the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2022/2/4

Y1 - 2022/2/4

N2 - Mental health is especially important as women transition into parenthood. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the rapid reconfiguration of maternity services, including perinatal mental healthcare, as offered by Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Midwives, in NHS Trusts in the United Kingdom. This article represents work undertaken in rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to document the findings from March 2020 up until May 2021 in literature published on perinatal mental health through the pandemic, as well as to engage in a knowledge mapping exercise across five NHS Trusts in London. In this research, we utilised a critical review methodology which purposefully selects and synthesises materials after extensive literature searching to provide a broad and informed narrative around an issue. For our knowledge mapping exercise, we utilised an inclusive stance to gather, pool, and synthesise data from five NHS Trusts regarding the provisions and reconfigurations of their perinatal mental health services, creating a comparable and translatable snapshot in time. Our rapid, critical review highlighted two themes: ‘Increased Perinatal Distress’ and ‘Inaccessible Services and Support’. Our knowledge mapping exercise produced four themes: ‘Retention of Existing Service Provision’; ‘Additional Services Provided’; ‘Reconfiguration of Service Provision’; ‘Additional Provision to Support Staff Wellbeing’. We conclude by offering best practice guidance in order to provide shared learning to aid the transition through para-pandemic circumstances to service delivery in a post-pandemic ‘new normal’.

AB - Mental health is especially important as women transition into parenthood. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated the rapid reconfiguration of maternity services, including perinatal mental healthcare, as offered by Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Midwives, in NHS Trusts in the United Kingdom. This article represents work undertaken in rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic and aims to document the findings from March 2020 up until May 2021 in literature published on perinatal mental health through the pandemic, as well as to engage in a knowledge mapping exercise across five NHS Trusts in London. In this research, we utilised a critical review methodology which purposefully selects and synthesises materials after extensive literature searching to provide a broad and informed narrative around an issue. For our knowledge mapping exercise, we utilised an inclusive stance to gather, pool, and synthesise data from five NHS Trusts regarding the provisions and reconfigurations of their perinatal mental health services, creating a comparable and translatable snapshot in time. Our rapid, critical review highlighted two themes: ‘Increased Perinatal Distress’ and ‘Inaccessible Services and Support’. Our knowledge mapping exercise produced four themes: ‘Retention of Existing Service Provision’; ‘Additional Services Provided’; ‘Reconfiguration of Service Provision’; ‘Additional Provision to Support Staff Wellbeing’. We conclude by offering best practice guidance in order to provide shared learning to aid the transition through para-pandemic circumstances to service delivery in a post-pandemic ‘new normal’.

KW - COVID-19

KW - perinatal mental health

KW - midwives

KW - women's health

KW - pregnancy

KW - childbirth

KW - postpartum

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124342445&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/ijerph19031777

DO - 10.3390/ijerph19031777

M3 - Article

SN - 1660-4601

VL - 19

SP - 1

EP - 12

JO - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

JF - International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

IS - 3

M1 - 1777

ER -