ArticleWomen and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives2022
Making good care essential: The impact of increased obstetric interventions and decreased services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Women's experiences of maternity care in high-income countries during the pandemic health system shock: a follow-up systematic review and qualitative evidence synthesis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Parental experiences with changes in maternity care during the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-studies systematic review.Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives · 2023Pooled it
- Interpreting maternal and neonatal outcomes in COVID-19-affected pregnancies.The Indian journal of medical research · 2026Article
- Predictors of COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Pregnancy Stress: Prenatal and Postpartum Experiences in Canada.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Understanding the experiences of birthing care during COVID-19: A qualitative systematic review.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2025Review
- "She helped from the first minute to the last" - Experiences of respectful maternal and newborn care during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nampula Province, Mozambique.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- 'We tried our best... it wasn't great': a qualitative study of clinician experiences on child psychiatry wards at the height of COVID-19.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Comparison of Modified Labor Induction Strategies for Pregnant Women at a Single Tertiary Center Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Social support network of Brazilian Amazonian women to subsidise the decision-making power of planned home birth: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Pregnant and postpartum women's experiences of the indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in high-income countries: a qualitative evidence synthesis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Women's suggestions on how to improve the quality of maternal and newborn care: A qualitative analysis from the IMAgiNE EURO survey in Italy during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.European journal of midwifery · 2024Article
- Structural racism and violence: Routine healthcare access in a cohort of marginalized Indigenous women and Two-Spirit Peoples during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Research square · 2023Article
- The pandemic experiences of Ontario perinatal providers: a qualitative study.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- "This is not what I imagined motherhood would look like": pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting during COVID-19 - a qualitative analysis of the first year since birth.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- COVID-19 Special Issue - The Impact of COVID-19 on women, babies, midwives, and midwifery care.Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives · 2022Article
- Birth setting decisions during COVID-19: A comparative qualitative study.Women's health (London, England)Article
- Experiences of Canadian perinatal care during the COVID-19 pandemic: Analysis of open-ended survey responses.Women's health (London, England)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
PROBLEM &
backgroundSince the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, policies have been implemented to limit interpersonal contact in clinical and community settings. The impacts of pandemic-related policies on experiences of pregnancy and birth are crucial to investigate and learn from.
aimTo examine the impact of pandemic policy changes on experiences of pregnancy and birth, thereby identifying barriers to good care; to inform understandings of medicalization, care, pregnancy, and subjectivity during times of crisis; and to critically examine the assumptions about pregnancy and birth that are sustained and produced through policy.
methodsQualitative descriptive study drawing on 67 in-depth interviews with people who were pregnant and/or gave birth in Canada during the pandemic. The study took a social constructionist standpoint and employed thematic analysis to derive meaning from study data.
findingsThe pandemic has resulted in an overall scaling back of perinatal care alongside the heavy use of interventions (e.g., induction of labour, cesarian section) in response to pandemic stresses and uncertainties. Intervention use here is an outcome of negotiation and collaboration between pregnant people and their care providers as they navigate pregnancy and birth in stressful, uncertain conditions. DISCUSSION: Continuity of care throughout pregnancy and postpartum, labour support persons, and non-clinical services and interventions for pain management are all essential components of safe maternal healthcare. However, pandemic perinatal care demonstrates that they are not viewed as such.
conclusionThe pandemic has provided an opportunity to restructure Canadian reproductive health care to better support and encourage out-of-hospital births - including midwife-assisted births - for low-risk pregnancies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.