key: cord-0929455-whipf4xt
authors: Ramirez Biermann, Chloe; Choo, Monica S.; Carman, Kelsey; Siden, Jonathan Y.; Minns, Annie; Peahl, Alex
title: Stay Home, Stay Connected: A virtual model for enhanced prenatal support during the COVID‐19 pandemic and beyond
date: 2021-03-28
journal: Int J Gynaecol Obstet
DOI: 10.1002/ijgo.13676
sha: fbc7e04949316e945e4632a541aad9b534ea4f39
doc_id: 929455
cord_uid: whipf4xt

Virtual prenatal support groups addressed heightened mental health, psychosocial support, and anticipatory guidance needs in pregnant patients during the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Following an institution-wide recruitment effort, pregnant patients (n = 180) were divided into groups of 8-12 participants of similar gestational age. Groups met monthly to discuss pregnancy topics with maternity care providers. Mental health providers and community members offered program-wide online coping and wellness lectures during other weeks ( In free-text responses, participants reported benefit from anticipatory guidance from providers, reassurance and education regarding COVID-19, and sharing experiences with other pregnant patients.

Initial data from our novel virtual pregnancy support group are promising, and indicate potential to provide critical psychosocial support. Future work is ongoing to more deeply examine the participant experience and mental health outcomes. While SHSC was developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it adds a more widely applicable, innovative dimension to prenatal care by bridging medical and non-medical needs using widely available technology.

This creative method of delivering anticipatory guidance and psychosocial support in prenatal care can benefit pregnant patients facing barriers to these services even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors have no conflicts of interest.

CRB, MSC, and AP contributed to study design and wrote the manuscript. MSC performed the data analysis. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and final manuscript.

Chloe Ramirez Biermann https://orcid. org/0000-0002-0797-476X

Uptrend in distress and psychiatric symptomatology in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic

The synchronous co-infection of malaria and SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy has recently been reported. 1 A 38-year-old woman born in Burkina Faso, gravida 4 para 3, lived in Italy for 8 years until November 2019 when she returned to Burkina Faso for a short visit. She was referred to us in March 2020 at 22 +2 weeks of gestation with a two-day history of fever (38.4°C), dry cough, rhinitis, malaise, myalgia, retrosternal pain, and fatigue. Nasopharyngeal swab SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR resulted positive, chest X-ray was unremarkable; however, lung ultrasound was consistent with viral pneumonia. Due to tachypnea (36 breaths/minute) and worsening SpO 2 , the patient started oxygen therapy. Laboratory findings were normal, except for increased levels of C-reactive protein.Clinical conditions and imaging improved. On the 20th day she was discharged, and nasopharyngeal swabs on days 21 and 22 were negative.No ethical approval was required for this study and the patient provided written informed consent for inclusion in the study.At 25 +6 weeks of gestation she was admitted again with fever