COVID-19 Related Stressors and Coping Strategies Experienced by Linguistically and Ethnically Diverse Women during Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum Periods

The goal of this thesis was to better understand the lived experiences of an ethnically and linguistically diverse sample of mothers who gave birth during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pregnant women experience higher risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes compared to non-pregnant women. Yet the impact on women’s psychosocial wellbeing may be just as problematic, given new mothers’ increased risk for depression postpartum coupled with the loss of multiple forms of support so critical during the postpartum period and new stressors created by the pandemic. A universal testing strategy at a Labor & Delivery Unit at a hospital in the Southwestern U.S early in the pandemic identified that Communities of Color – particularly resettled refugee women - experienced COVID-19 infection at higher rates compared to White women. Therefore, this study investigates stressors and coping strategies specific to the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum periods in a linguistically diverse sample of 140 women (Swahili n=18 , Kinyarwanda n=18 , Burmese n=13, Arabic=11, Spanish n=35, English n=45) who gave birth between May and December 2020. Across groups, the most severe health stressor was fear of self or infant contracting COVID-19, leading to strict adherence to prevention measures among women, and feelings of social isolation. This was followed by anxiety for lack of social support at birth, and, in some women, management of other health concerns related to increased risk for adverse pregnancy or severe COVID-19 outcomes. Coping strategies included looking to religion or spirituality for comfort, as well as spending more time with family. This analysis of how the pandemic affected women’s psychosocial wellbeing from pregnancy to postpartum informs adaptation of care for linguistically and ethnically minoritized groups and their infants.