OPEN ACCESS
PEER-REVIEWED
Original Study
| Published: June 30, 2022
Mental Health Status of Pregnant Women and Breastfeeding Mothers During COVID-19 Outbreak in Bangladesh
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh Google Scholar More about the auther
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Chittagong, Chattogram, Bangladesh Google Scholar More about the auther
Lecturer, Department of Economics, Sheikh Hasina University, Netrokona, Bangladesh Google Scholar More about the auther
Assistant Professor, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali, Bangladesh Google Scholar More about the auther
School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China Google Scholar More about the auther
DIP: 18.01.073.20221002
DOI: 10.25215/1002.073
ABSTRACT
In March 2020, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared a public health emergency of international concern. Studies have suggested a higher prevalence of mental health problems during this pandemic among the general population in Bangladesh. However, there was no information regarding the mental health problems of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess pregnant and breastfeeding women’s mental health status during the COVID 19 pandemic in Bangladesh. In the present study, data were collected from a sample of 201 pregnant women and 279 breastfeeding mothers via an online survey. The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale -21 (DASS-21) and the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) were utilized to assess the mental problems in this study. Results suggested 39.31% had moderate to extremely severe depression symptoms, 43.29% had moderate to extremely severe anxiety symptoms, 28.86% moderate to extremely severe stress symptoms, and 11.42% COVID-19 anxiety symptoms among pregnant women. For the breastfeeding mothers, these ratios were 39.78%, 36.98%, 26.16%, and 12.90%, respectively. Mothers who gave birth for the first time had a higher depression ratio than mothers who had previously delivered babies. These findings suggested the strong need for heightened assessment and treatment of mental health for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers during the current pandemic.
This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2022, Sharmin N., Sharmin Z., Hiramoni F. A., Sharker T. & Ahmed Z.
Received: February 17, 2022; Revision Received: June 15, 2022; Accepted: June 30, 2022
Article Overview
ISSN 2348-5396
ISSN 2349-3429
18.01.073.20221002
10.25215/1002.073
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Published in Volume 10, Issue 2, April-June, 2022