Maternar: Pandemic generated collective trauma and little legitimized, says researcher

What is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on maternal mental health? How much did social isolation affect women who had children in this historical period?

These are some of the questions from the Puerperium and Pandemic research: impacts on maternal mental health. The survey seeks to hear mothers of children born between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.

The questionnaire is available at this link until November 3: https://forms.gle/87GQZ6GxZd9KyuWZ6 and also addresses the role of the support network, and access and psychological follow-up during pregnancy and postpartum.

“As I delve deeper into the studies of perinatal psychology, I realized how much we still have to understand and study to support these women and families. I can say that we live a collective trauma and still little socially legitimized”, says the author of the research, psychologist Isabel Hammes .

The specialist in clinical psychology decided to study the topic because she was one of these women. “I lived a large part of my pregnancy in complete isolation and a puerperium of a lot of loneliness and fear. Gradually, I found ways to create support networks [como um grupos de mães no WhatsApp] and, of course, it helped me to prevent postpartum depression”, he says.

The survey is part of the completion work of the Psychology and Psychopathology of Perinatality course at the Sedes Sapientiae Institute, in São Paulo, and the expectation is to reach 300 responses.