Poster #72 - Prenatal Maternal Stress During the COVID-19 Pandemic is not Associated With Birth Outcomes

• In Event: Poster Session 04

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated numerous stressors among the general population, but more specifically in pregnant women because of disruptions in prenatal care and delivery conditions. Studies suggest that prenatal maternal stress increased during the pandemic (Berthelot et al., 2020; Perzow et al., 2021). Considering what is known about the fetal programming potential of prenatal maternal stress, several researchers, early in the pandemic, raised concerns over the significant negative consequences that the pandemic context could have on birth outcomes. Studies comparing birth outcomes during vs before the pandemic suggest a marginal increase in birthweight and a significant decrease in preterm birth (Yang et al., 2022), but individual variations in prenatal maternal stress during the pandemic have received less attention.
The objective of the present study is to examine the association between prenatal maternal stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and birth outcomes. This examination will consider individual variations in general and pandemic-related stress during pregnancy.

Methods
Participants and procedure. The participants were 195 French-speaking women from the province of Quebec, Canada. Participants completed an initial online questionnaire during pregnancy (T1) between January 8 and August 31, 2021 to report on sociodemographic and prenatal maternal stress variables. When their child was 6 months old, mothers completed a second online questionnaire (T2) to collect information on birth outcomes (gestational age, birthweight, head circumference and 5-min Apgar scores).
Measures. General stress was measured using the short version of the Psychological Stress Measure (PSM; Lemyre & Tessier, 2003). Pandemic-related stress was assessed in two ways: 1) objective exposure to COVID-19 (e.g. lockdowns, test for COVID-19, infection with COVID-19, hospitalization because of COVID-19); 2) participants’ subjective experience of stress (perceived impact of the pandemic on pregnancy and overall stress level in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Analyses. Four hierarchical linear regressions were performed, one for each of the birth outcomes, controlling for sociodemographic variables.

Results: At T1, the expectant mothers were on average 29.64 years old (SD = 3.67) and had completed between 14 and 40 weeks of pregnancy (M = 26.02; SD = 7.58). In terms of general stress, 13.9% of mothers reported a very high level of stress. The mean total score of objective exposure to COVID-19 is .87 (SD = .99), with scores varying from 0 to 6. For subjective assessment of pandemic-related stress, 45.1% of participants reported a moderate impact of the pandemic on pregnancy, while 32.8% reported a high impact. The models predicting gestational age, birthweight, head circumference and 5-min Apgar scores show that none of the prenatal maternal stress variables were associated with these birth outcomes.

Discussion: The findings obtained in this study suggesting that individual variations in stress experienced by pregnant women during the pandemic are not associated with birth outcomes add to those from earlier studies reporting no differences in birth outcomes during the pandemic vs before (Yang et al., 2022). Potential pandemic-related protective factors (e.g., changes in life and hygiene habits, rest imposed by lockdowns) and the need to offer support to pregnant women are discussed.

Authors

• Jessica Pearson, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)
  Presenting Author

• Gabrielle Fréchette-Boilard, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR)

• Claire Baudry, Université du Québec Á  Trois Rivières

• Célia Matte-Gagné, Laval University

• Annie Bernier, University of Montreal

• Jean-Pascal Lemelin, Université de Sherbrooke

• George M Tarabulsy, University Laval