Maternal mental health and its determinants during COVID-19, experience from Kashmir, Northern India

Since the start of the pandemic due to coronavirus 2019, stresses and anxiety have increased in all age-groups. We aimed to study the common mental disorders in pregnant and lactating females and study their fears and copings during the pandemic.

Purposive sampling was employed in our study. We included all pregnant and lactating females who consented to participate in the study. A total of 95 females were included in our study. We used a semi-structured questionnaire with questions regarding socio-demographic variables and questions related to apprehensions due to COVID-19, belonging to high-risk group, and structured instruments like Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale.

The mean age of our study population was 30.8 ± 3.67 years. The majority of our patients were married (93) and homemakers (61) and studied up to 12^th grade. Among our patients, 33 tested positive for COVID-19 and 12 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19-related symptoms. Thirty-nine females were pregnant and 56 were lactating. Preexisting medical illness was seen in 23, and psychiatric illness was already present in 19 patients. Major depression was seen in 43% of females, mild anxiety symptoms in 69%, severe anxiety in 8%, mild obsessive compulsive disorder in 16%, and moderate in 10% of cases.

In our cases, anxiety and depression were seen in increased prevalence as compared to pre-pandemic levels. Being hospitalized for COVID-19 symptoms, social isolation and apprehensions regarding the baby increased the risk of depression.