Navigating uncertainty in early motherhood: addressing psychological needs during the postpartum period

Many women experience psychological challenges during the transition to motherhood. The recent COVID-19 pandemic was a period of high uncertainty, particularly for vulnerable people such as women in postpartum.

Following the Self-Determination Theory, this study, spanning over 34 months, examined the relationships between the timeline of preventive health measures in which women had their children and their Basic Psychological Needs (BPN), as well as the role played by the fear of contracting the COVID-19 virus in these postpartum women. Participants were 1031 mothers living in Portugal.

Results indicate that women who gave birth during the initial stages of the pandemic showed lower fear levels of being infected than their counterparts in the later stages; moreover, the latter showed lower satisfaction and higher frustration of BPN. Moreover, fear moderated the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions at the time points when mothers delivered their children and the satisfaction or frustration of the BPN for competence and relatedness needs, but not for autonomy.

Globally, findings suggest that using COVID-19 preventive restrictions timeline data may provide a preliminary basis for setting future guidelines that would help enhance women's postpartum BPN in situations of high uncertainty.