key: cord-0869165-w6ylvogf
authors: Gildner, Theresa E.; Thayer, Zaneta M.
title: Birth plan alterations among American women in response to COVID‐19
date: 2020-05-24
journal: Health Expect
DOI: 10.1111/hex.13077
sha: cbd29f313c83f450fe56ccba377b7a48ab92d279
doc_id: 869165
cord_uid: w6ylvogf

nan

To the editor:

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically strained the American healthcare system. 1 Crowded hospitals, overworked staff and a lack of medical equipment have implications for those needing medical care unrelated to COVID-19, including pregnant women. However, few studies have examined the impact of the pandemic on maternity care. What little work has been done has predominantly focused on treatment of pregnant women suffering from COVID-19 2,3 and the risk of virus transmission from mother to baby. [3] [4] [5] [6] It remains unclear how the pandemic has influenced maternal care choices, in particular how women have altered their birth plans.

Data on common birth plan changes are needed to help providers better understand factors shaping care decisions, information that can be used to address patient concerns and tailor care recommendations. Here, we use an online convenience survey to assess how American women's birth plans (eg intended labour support and delivery location) have changed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 And Reproductive Effects (CARE) study was posted on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter) and distributed via email to contacts working in maternity care and public health.

Pregnant women over the age of 18 and living in the United States were invited to participate in a survey assessing how the pandemic was impacting their medical care and birth plans. The data presented here were collected between 16 and 20 April 2020.

In addition to providing basic demographic data, gestational week and intended delivery facility, participants were asked whether 'any aspect of your birth plan changed due to COVID-19' (yes/no). If they answered yes, they were then asked why and how their plans changed. These analyses were limited to participants who completed the entire survey (n = 1400).

A subset of this sample also answered an open-ended question describing the specific changes to their birth plans (n = 592); these qualitative responses were assessed for common patterns. 7 This study received ethical approval from Dartmouth College (STUDY00032045). Commonly provided COVID-related birth plan changes-from a subset of 592 respondents-are outlined in Table 1 Notably, the women in this sample exhibited a much higher preference for out of hospital births than the national average before the COVID-19 pandemic (5.4% vs. 1.6%, respectively). 8 While this may be due in part to the demographic characteristics of the sample, this percentage is also comparatively high among women in the sample who had previously given birth. Specifically, of the 667 women in the sample who had previously given birth, 3.1% reported an out of hospital delivery for at least one of their previous births, but 5.1% of these same women now reported they planned for an out of hospital delivery. This, combined with the qualitative data reported here, suggests that part of this increase in out of hospital births is likely attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is important to note that due to the use of convenience sampling these data are not representative of the whole US population.

Additional work is needed using more diverse samples to identify additional issues influencing maternal care decisions. The diverse factors influencing maternal birth plan choices highlighted here may serve as reference providers can use to explore the specific concerns of each patient, ultimately leading to more productive provider-patient conversations about the maternal care and delivery options available to best address any given situation.

We would like to thank Nadia Clement for her assistance building the online survey and designing the recruitment flyers. We would also like to thank Margaret Sherin, Gloriuese Uwizeye and Chlöe Sweetman for their valuable feedback on the questionnaire during development.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Left COVID-19 epicentre and/or temporarily moved in with family to shelter-in-place and now have to find a new provider (n = 8)

Note: The number of responses for each COVID-related reason is noted, respondents sometimes listed more than one factor impacting their birth decisions.

TA B L E 1 Commonly reported reasons for birth plan changes (eg changes in birth location, labour and delivery preferences) provided by a subset of the sample (n = 592)

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